Why Do We Press Elevator Buttons Harder When We're Already Late?

The button is already lit. The elevator is already coming. And yet there’s something in us that genuinely believes more pressure will make it arrive faster.

That was me in August 2024. Except the elevator was my business.

I had left a corporate job to start coaching, and pressure to sign more clients was kicking in.

So I was posting every day, filling my calendar with tasks, working late everyday.

No matter how much I did, I still felt stressed because I didn’t really know how to make my business successful.

I was like someone frantically flapping both arms in water, desperate not to drown, making a lot of noise and movement but going absolutely nowhere.

Then a coach asked me one question: how many conversations are you having each week?

I didn’t have an answer. Because the honest answer was almost none. I had been so focused on creating and showing up that I had completely sidelined actually talking to people.

I had been so busy pressing the button harder that I never stopped to ask if I was pressing the right one.

But humans don’t connect through content. We connect through conversation. That is how trust is built. That is how businesses actually grow.

So the question is never how much did you post this week.

It is how many people did you actually talk to.

Press the button once. Then go talk to someone.

Kanika

P.S. If you want more of the right people starting conversations with you, start with your profile. My free LinkedIn profile audit shows you in about three minutes what to fix first. Start your free audit here.