How to become lonely

A lot of people end up alone, and don't completely understand why. Of course, they might be unpleasant to be around, but counter-intuitively, almost all lonely people are also incredibly agreeable people.

he reason that so many people end up alone when they're perfectly good friends, is that they don't truly understand a fundamental truth about relation ships: All relationships end.

While that sounds obvious, most people don't think about the consequences of that basic truth. The most important, which most sales-people will understand deeply, is the funnel. The logic goes something like this:

1) All friendships end. Whether by death, distance or disaster, your relationship will end

2) If you never generate new relationships, your total number of relationships will only decrease, until none are left.

3) Worse still, if the rate of losing relationships is higher that the rate of generating relationships, the that number will still tend to zero.

The conclusion is simple:

if 1) you don't generate new relationships or 2) You lose friendships more quickly than you make them, you'll end up alone.

In 1961, John little proved that statement mathematically, when he demonstrated what is now known as little's law. Using his law, we can describe the situation easily: the number of friends you have (F) is equal to the rate of new friendships (R) times how long your relationships last (T). F = R*T