Talking to Strangers Is the Key to Your Success
- Roshaun Akeem Page
- May 14
- 2 min read

When you’re known for being competent, people start seeing your achievements as expected not extraordinary. They don’t celebrate your wins because they assume you’ve “got it.” The bar keeps rising, but the applause gets quieter.
And what happens when the people you thought would support you like your friends, your family, your connections stop connecting? When they can’t see the vision you’re building or the goals you’re chasing?
That’s when you have to expand your network intentionally and unapologetically. Sometimes that means showing up in new rooms. Sometimes that means reaching out cold. Cold emails. Cold calls. Cold DMs. Whatever it takes to get in front of the right people.
It’s funny, isn’t it? When you’re a kid, you’re taught:
“Never talk to strangers.”
But as you grow up, you realize:
It’s the strangers who will open the doors your inner circle won’t.

Strangers become investors. Strangers become collaborators. Strangers become clients, fans, and mentors.
Sometimes the people closest to you can’t see beyond what they’ve always known about you. They’re stuck in an outdated version of who you are. But strangers? They meet you as you are today and often, they’re the first to recognize your potential.
If you’re an entrepreneur, artist, filmmaker, or anyone chasing a big vision, you’ll hit this wall. You’ll watch people cheer louder for someone else’s mediocre idea while giving you silence or skepticism. When that happens, don’t shrink.
Expand your network. Expand your outreach. Expand your belief in strangers.
Because the truth is: Strangers will believe in you before your circle ever will.
Steve Jobs once said:
“Everything around you was made up by people no smarter than you." The key is reaching the right people and most of them are outside your current circle.
You’re not building for today’s approval. You're building a legacy. You're building something that will outlive the doubts, the silence, and the closed doors.
Don’t wait for your circle to wake up. Don't wait for their validation. Your vision is bigger than their comfort zone.
Take action today!

Challenge yourself:
Send 10 cold emails this week.
Reach out to 5 people you’ve never met but admire.
Pitch your idea to someone outside your usual circle.
Your next big opportunity might be one message away. And when it comes, you’ll realize
it wasn’t luck. It was strategy.
— Roshaun Akeem Page
Comments