The 'Pay Your Dues' Approach to Incredible Social Skills

If you wait for life to give you chances to improve your social skills, you'll wait a long time. Create your own chances by becoming a socially attractive individual.

Toby was a guy life never really gave a chance.

Often he imagined his bright future: a beautiful girlfriend; the leader of a cool social group; the most popular guy in town.

But the sad reality was, life never gave him the chance to get there.

When Toby was in school, sometimes girls got crushes on him. But they were never the 'right' girls -- not beautiful enough, not popular enough. There was one time a pretty, popular girl took a shine to him. But the thing was, there was never a good time to talk to her, a good way to meet her. So he never met her and never got to talk to her or ask her out. Life just never gave him a chance.

Sometimes people would be friendly with him and try to include him in their groups. Except it was never the right people. Sometimes it was the nerds (he didn't want anything to do with them). Sometimes it was the outsider kids who were in the middle of the social hierarchy. He was friendly with them, but he didn't encourage them -- they were okay, but they weren't cool. When he talked to the cool kids, they'd be friendly back, but he couldn't seem to break through with them. Life just didn't give him a chance.

After school, the pattern continued. Sometimes girls would like him, or people would want to hang out with him. But they were never the right girls; never the right people.

He didn't understand why it was so hard for him to meet the most beautiful girl; to have the coolest friends. Why must life be so stingy with chances?