What did he have to lose? Man’s crazy tactic leads to romance

There are times when there’s no time like the present to follow your instinct and take a crazy chance. This is the story of one of those times.

On the online networking site, Reddit, someone asked an interesting question today: “Ladies of Reddit, what’s the best way a guy has asked you out?”

Here’s a story one woman told:

“I was driving around town after work, windows down — it was a gorgeous October day. I noticed two guys in a car next to me, one in civilian clothes, the other in his ABUs (Air Force uniform). I thought it was adorable that they were together because Don’t Ask Don’t Tell had just been repealed. I kept driving.

“A friend prank-called me and asked if I had any condoms, so I was laughing. We hung up and I was singing along to a Christina Aguilera song (‘I Hate Boys’). I stopped at an intersection and glanced in my rear-view mirror and saw a man running, full tilt, toward my car. I was so shocked that I didn’t think to lock my doors or anything. He got to my car, threw a slip of paper in, and ran off. It happened so fast I didn’t even really see him.

“The slip of paper was a receipt from some dinosaur park in Texas, and on the back was a scribbled phone number, all bumpy from being written on a car dashboard in a rush. I’m pretty sure I sat in my car with my mouth agape for like five minutes. I nearly missed the light when it turned green. I watched as the guy drove past me. It was the man in civilian clothes that I thought was gay.

“I went home and tried to work up the courage to call him, but I chickened out and texted him instead.

“I said, ‘Is this the crazy f***** that threw his phone number into my car?’

“And he replied, ‘Is this the crazy girl who is texting me back?’

“We were inseparable after that. We’ve been married for two years now.”

The woman covered up the phone number on the back of the ticket before she posted it, but you can see the date she wrote on there when it happened.

There’s no hidden lesson here. It’s just a very simple one.

There are times in life when you see something you think you want, but the circumstances don’t seem appropriate for you to go after it. I’ve seen women before who I’ve thought, “You know, there’s something about her that makes me think I’d like to get to know her.” You can either take a crazy to chance to go after something — or you can give up before you start.

The crazy guy who ended married to the crazy woman in the story couldn’t have believed his plan had much chance of working. I mean, who would respond to a quick approach in traffic like that? Would you? Would many people?

The odds were very, very low. In fact, the odds weren’t even that great that they would be a good match if they did meet. So anybody reasonable would say it was probably a waste of time — not to mention dangerous and a bit embarrassing.

But what did he have to lose?

The odds of us getting what we want are frequently very small. But the odds are zero if we don’t even try — and tiny odds are much better than none at all.

Sometimes, crazy chances pay off. What do you and I have to lose by taking a shot?