Hello. How do you do?
or
Hi. How are you doing?
Where did these sorts of greetings come from?
Why do we do them?
[and...lurking behind the curtains of the business scenes...is this 'Networking'?]
Some traditions are wonderful things. I mean, there is a good reason behind the lingering of some traditions. These greetings are examples.
Consider the Bedouins...the desert-dwelling, Arabic nomads of the Middle East. There are some great Bedouin stories, which can help us understand why 'greetings' exist as they do today.
Here is an often-quoted piece of Bedouin philosophy:
"I against my brother, my bothers and me against my cousins, then my cousins and I against strangers."
About a dozen millennia ago, that thinking developed in the fertile crescent [at or close to Bedouin homelands]. And, that thinking has existed throughout the evolution of civilization. It is part of the human condition...our legacy, our present, and our future.
For millennia the Bedouins have asked questions when they meet or greet people.
Trust is earned or lost first at home: I against my brother
Then trust, if it can be gained, radiates from home outward.
That's the way civilization grew.
People wanted to explore. People wanted to own property. And, people did those things by conquering first and later by trading.
As people began to venture out into new territories greetings became a part of life...friend or foe was the first test performed by a greeting. As trading routes expanded the greeting tests expanded beyond friend or foe.
As an example, when meeting new people the Bedouins asked a series of questions...
- Who are you?
- Where are you from?
- Where are you going?
Simple, straightforward questions, designed millennia ago to help strangers feel comfortable enough with one another to determine 'common ground'...including common ground for exchanging goods in trade.
[now I hinted above, some business thoughts were lurking here]
Isn't that more-or-less what
Networking is all about?
Put another way, wouldn't it be OK to continue the habit well-proven by the Bedouins thousands of years ago.
Wouldn't it be OK to meet new people and ask:
- Who are you?
- Where are you from?
- Where are you going?
Of course, you will be tempted to massage those words a bit to make them more-catchy.
Really, there is no need to do that.