What would you do if a random person came up to you and introduced themselves? If you were like most people, you would be weirded out. If you were polite, you would probably politely nod and say hello, or you may be a jerk and run away. It's normal - most people aren't used to being approached by random strangers.

But here is an interesting story. There was a "Making the Band" reality TV show a few years back, where a bunch of aspiring musicians competed for a recording contract. For one of the show's "challenges" the producers threw a party in a random bar. During the party "random" people approached the contestants and the contestants were judged on how they treated those random people (whether they were an asshole or not). The "twist" to the challenge was that the "random people" were actually agents and producers, i.e., the very people that could make their career. And if the contestants were mean to the producers, well, they were fucked.

The point of the challenge was to teach the lesosn that you should always be nice to everybody in Los Angeles because you never know who could be an agent or a producer that could help your career. And if you've ever been to New York to LA, you'll notice that in certain places (high profile cocktail parties, exclusive clubs, etc...) people are VERY friendly to strangers (especially if you are well dressed) - not because they are actually good people, but because they know that any random person could help their career. Of course, there is a 99% chance the person who is introducing themselves is a nobody, but its worth being friendly for that 1% chance that the person can make your dream come true.

This is good advice outside of the entertainment industry as well. Unless you are God, there is always somebody you can meet that can help your career. If you work in law, business, whatever, you have to be able to introduce yourself to strangers to network, find a job, find clients, etc... Business schools have "networking events" where you basically grab a drink at the bar and have to meet people. My friend's cousins started a multimillionaire magazine empire in New York City - they started by sneaking into exclusive parties and just meeting people.

So the moral of the story is this: IT IS NEVER WEIRD TO INTRODUCE YOURSELF. Now, a girl (or any other person) doesn't owe you her number. She also doesn't owe you her time to have a long conversation, or to be your friend. But if you introduce herself, she has to be polite. Otherwise, she is an idiot. For the reasons explained above. It is completely normal and expected in the adult world to introduce yourself and say hi to strangers. What if you were an agent that was recruiting her to be a world famous model? What if you were the owner of the bar who wanted to meet his customers? What if you had paid for the VIP section and wanted to kick people out you didn't know (or were assholes to you)? There is a million reason to introduce yourself and that is the main way that people meet strangers in our modern world. If you don't take part in that process, you are a moron.

I love introducing myself. I always pretend I'm secretly a Hollywood agent that can make the persons life. I walk around with an air of dignity and professionalism like I own the place and that everybody there knows I'm an agent except the person I am introducting myself too.

Another great thing about introducing yourself is that it interjects an air of mystery into the interaction. Is he talking to me because he likes me or is he just being polite and introducing himself? That's exactly the mystery you want to create.

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