Week 62 - Don't talk to strangers 😬

Author

Yurii Lazaruk
May 17, 2026

Hey my friend, most people say they want more meaningful human connections… but how many conversations with strangers did they actually say “yes” to this month? 😬

Today, let’s talk about how we accidentally close ourselves off from amazing humans, and why sometimes all we need is just a smile 😉

Try This Yourself

I’ve just had another amazing conversation with a fellow community builder whom I randomly met on LinkedIn. And it happened just because they accepted my request and proposed a coffee chat.

And I cherish such moments because they happen very rarely. Out of 100 new people I meet, I probably have only 2–3 coffee chats… and they’re usually REALLY good 😲

Many people say they want more meaningful connections, but ignore connection requests. Or accept them… and disappear into the digital void 👻 

Somehow, we often have time for passive scrolling, but not for active connection 🤷‍♂️

It reminds me of a “Yes Man” movie with Jim Carrey, where the main character’s life changed drastically after he followed a spiritual guru and started saying “yes” to everything life threw at him.

As a guru said, “You say ‘no’ to life, and therefore you’re not living.”

The same happens with human connections. We pretend we want to meet people, but we keep saying no. Or ghost others, same shit 🤷‍♂️

That’s exactly why in Week 43 (Serendipity of Human Connections), I wrote that some of the best opportunities in life come from conversations you never planned to have.

Because Friendworking is not just about just collecting contacts.

It’s about giving serendipity a chance.

So what if, instead of defaulting to “too busy,” we occasionally said: “Yeah, let’s talk.”

I call this the Open Door Principle 🤓

Not saying yes to everyone. Just staying open to the right conversations.

If you check someone’s profile on LinkedIn and see they’re an SEO expert selling backlinks, or clearly see you dislike the attitude and energy of a person, you must say “no” to protect your energy and time.

But overall, many amazing humans are waiting to meet you, and you’ll never know what might happen next unless you say, “Yes, let’s talk!”

Tiny Friendworking experiment this week👇

  • accept 3 interesting connection requests,

  • invite 1 person for coffee (virtual counts),

  • say yes to 1 conversation you’d normally ignore.

Then tell me what happened 🤓

tl;dr Great human connections rarely happen when we default to “too busy.” Open a few doors and let serendipity do its thing 😉

Expand Your Mindset

My wife always tells me she can read emotions on my face.

And it’s real. If I’m disappointed or sad, it’s super visible. I can’t (or won’t) do anything with that 🤷‍♂️

One tiny thing that genuinely helps me reset is… smiling 😀

When I smile, it makes me feel at ease, and when others see my smile, they usually smile back.

But not an arrogant smirk, that signals superiority, disdain, or self-satisfaction. Just a gentle, open, genuine smile.

And it’s not just me, there was a global study by Many Smiles Collaboration with 3,878 participants in a total of 19 countries, that found:

  • smiling can increase happiness,

  • smiling can create happiness, not just reflect it,

  • even unaware participants experienced the effect.

(Looks like Week 48 officially got scientific validation 😅)

So yeah, as Skipper from Madagascar said:
“Just smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave.” 😀👋

tl;dr Smiling won’t solve everything. But it can absolutely shift your emotional state, and how others respond to you ✨

Now I’m curious: what’s one amazing connection in your life that happened because you randomly said “yes” to a conversation? Just hit reply and tell me! I read every message 😉

💡 What influenced me this week 💡

Thoughts of the week:

  • “Your identity should never be attached to the roles you occupy in the world.” - Sahil Bloom’s newsletter

  • “Community is one of the few places where you hear how customers actually talk about the product when they’re not trying to fit into your positioning.” - Joshua Zerkel, The Community Code newsletter

  • “The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.” - B.B. King, The Economist’s daily quotes

  • “You must write, and read, as if your life depended on it.” - Andrienne Rich, The Economist’s daily quotes

  • “The more we reach for certainty through our devices, the less capable we become of living without it.” - Sahil Bloom’s newsletter

Song of the week:

Book and quotes of the week:

“I do not bargain. I am an expert. For the services of an expert, you have to pay.”

“He was an adept in the art of the useful phrase, that is to say, the phrase that falls soothingly on the ear and is quite empty of meaning.”

“My client, Emery Power, understands only one thing-action! But it is useless to dispense energy by unnecessary action. There is a golden rule in life, George, never do anything yourself that others can do for you.”

Tools that I use with referrals:

  • Descript - for anything around podcasting and video editing

  • Beehiiv - for a newsletter (that’s what you receive 😅)

  • Text Blaze - to access message templates with shortcuts (like “/ty”)

  • Exali - promo “FROMYURII” - indemnity insurance for independent experts in Europe

  • Manus - for building complex systems and projects

Daily actions:

  • tell 1 person what I’m thankful to them for

  • read a self-development book/listen to a professional podcast for 15 minutes

  • make a valuable post/comment on LinkedIn

  • tag 10 people in my connections database

  • connect with 30 interesting people on LinkedIn

Weekly actions:

If you have any thoughts, ideas, or questions, please 👇

And if you’d like to have more 👋 Friendworking in your life 👇

See you next week! 👋