This isn't directly seddit related but it was a big accomplishment for me and is related to approach anxiety so I thought I would share. I am in the process of trying launch a start up and as part of that I need to gather market research for developing the product. Part of this is interviewing people in the target market about the problem you are attempting to solve and so today I finally worked up the courage to go out and conduct some interviews.

The target market is in a massive tourist area and as such I had to go interview said tourists. I got myself pretty psyched out thinking about how no one was going to want to talk to me while on their vacation or think that my product is terrible or whatever other negative things I could come up with. I spent the first 20 minutes just kind of wondering around working up the nerve. When I finally did try to approach some people the first few dismissed me pretty gruffly or ignored me and that kind of put me down a bit but I kept going. Soon enough I got some people to stop and talk with me and after a bit it got a lot easier.

I quickly realized that as soon as people realized I wasn't trying to sell something (It being a tourist area with lots of vendors/performers/beggars) they were a lot more open and most would at least stop and listen to the pitch even if they did end declining to be interviewed. They also respond a lot more positively the more confident I got. Instead of providing just yes/No answers they started to provide their inputs and thoughts.

In the end I guess a lot of the same principals apply as seduction. Clear intentions and confidence get much better reactions and most people are willing to hear you out even if they do decline in the end. There still people that blew me off but it pretty much stopped phasing and I started to have fun. There was a special event going on that had people going around the area looking for stuff and I created a good enough repoitore with some of them that even they declined to be interviewed they would give me updates as they went by and ask me how it was going. Overall it was a good afternoon.