Meet The Man On A Mission To Make 10,000 Friends
HOBOKEN, N.J. (CBSNewYork) - It can be tough to meet new people, but not for a young man who's on a mission to meet 10,000 new friends.
Rob Lawless is going coast to coast for his project, called Rob's 10K Friends. He meets with strangers for one hour and documents his journey on Instagram.
CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW ROB'S 10K FRIENDS
So far he's met nearly 3000 strangers who are now friends.
In Hoboken, he met up with Kenny Spooner at a cafe in Hoboken. He has no prepared questions, and doesn't take notes. They just chat and get to know each other.
"It's a lot of just sharing back and forth with no pressure and I think that puts people at ease. I think they come in more open," Lawless said.
They meet for 1 hour, and then Rob writes up a quick post for the project. He meets four people a day, the first one at 10 a.m. the last one at 4 p.m.
The oldest person was Eva, at 98 years old. The youngest, 5 year old Porter who has Down Syndrome.
"We played for an hour. I talked more so to his mother about what it's like to have a child with Down Syndrome, and how they were advocating for that," Lawless said.
WATCH: Rob Lawless Stops By CBSN New York Studios
He started the whole thing nearly four years ago, when he had a full time job at a tech start-up. But when he got laid off, he went full time with the project, and makes a little money finding companies to sponsor him.
"Last year, in the summer, I had like $500 to my name. And in those times I become more aggressive in seeking out partnerships," Lawless said.
As more and more people learn about the project through social media, he's getting messages every day from people interested in meeting up with him.
Dale Ryan met with Rob a couple months ago, and it's opened her up.
"Where maybe I would be more reserved talking to someone, I've reached out more and it's opened my mind to making more connections," Ryan said.
So what was it like for Kenny?
"It was amazing talking to Rob he sits there and he listens to you," he said. "You know we're going to be friends for life, and Rob is a great guy, and I really think this project is going to take off for him."
Rob will be in the area through December 7th, and then move on to another place.
CBS2's Cindy Hsu couldn't resist. She signed up to hang out with him for an hour. We'll see how that goes.
Rob says at the rate he's going, it will take about 10 more years to reach his goal of meeting 10,000 new friends.
