A few years ago I got the brilliant thought of building rapport with someone who I wanted to get to know better. Of course I had to make the process more complicated then it had to be. One of the characteristics that I find most important is the presence of quality time. I think it’s hard to be genuine friends with someone when you barely know them because you haven’t spent enough time with them. There was a lot of strategy and thinking involved in the process of building rapport. The funny thing was that I really didn’t even speak to this person on a regular basis. I just went out of my way to have conversations with them and to have meaningful interactions. The funny thing was that while we were never close there was enough rapport to have inside jokes and to communicate entire sentences telepathically. The whole experience reminded me how friendships and relationships aren’t always an exact science. To this day when I get a random hello or some way of recognition from him I’m not super excited or flattered because I worked for it. The truth is that when you go out of your way to make someone feel special and take a genuine interest in them they’ll be much more likely to remember you. I feel like that’s the basis of a lot of good relationships. Common goals and experiences along with time.