Never Fly Alone

I was on a flight to Detroit yesterday and there's someone who's reading WSJ sitting next to me.
I started to remember what my business school Dean said in the seminar the other day--
"he met a guy who was in a business suit and reading WSJ on a flight, and this guy was the VP of Pepsi Corp.
Then I also remembered the Dean said it only took 10 minutes to start a conversation, built the rapport and get to know the person, that's all building relationship is all about.
I thought it never hurts to put my Dean's theory into practice so I initiated the conversation by asking,
"Oh, is Detroit your final destination?"
That's how we started the 30 minutes conversation.
I wish we had started the converstaion earlier.
It's really an enjoyable conversation and I learned a lot from this gentleman.

In the end, we exchanged business/academic cards
Thanks for the Dean's idea and now I have some handy business cards whenever I travel.
Then I realized that the person I talked to was a very successful business executive in a well-known financial institute.
The happy thing is---I have a new-met life long friends.

So lesson learned---
1. Have some courage to start a conversation with someone you don't know--it never hurts to give it a shot.
Besides, what's the worst scneario?
From my experience, people are generally friendly when they are travelling.
2. Sometimes, things that you learned from school can be applied to the real world.