[QUOTE=tdn]
Actually, though, I’m toying with this idea. You’re right if by “working hard” you mean approaching every attractive person you see and declaring your undying love. But if by “working hard” you mean learning to read signals right, and send them right, and play it cool, and all that other stuff, then maybe there can be a profit by doing the necessary homework and practicing.
[/quote]
No, not exactly.
My point was more that when dealing with other “action=success” type endeavors in life, there is a much greater, more concrete, and linear correlation between action and return on that action, than the endeavor of seeking love and/or a life-partner. And more of a “guaranteed” one so to speak. Also, more options for use of skill or success one acquires.
Same with people’s career paths. A good education (or tech/trade school) coupled with a good work ethic has a clear, concrete return of putting a person in a decent career. Even if a person doesn’t start off in a corner office, the skills and education are in place and with the application of elbow grease you’re still on the path.
The search for love doesn’t work that way, it’s intangible, tenuous and usually your heart is in the hands of someone else while THEY decide whether or not you’ll “do”.
As you said, you can “work” on your social skills and improve your chances of meeting potentials. That’s about where “work=success” ends though. You can lead a horse to water and all that.
Meeting and even attracting men hasn’t ever been my problem, it’s in finding “the one” (not that I believe that there is only One “the one”, just simplifying), that I fail miserably at love, except for the one that got away (three years later I’m still slowly recovering).
There are always, (even in my elderly decrepit hideous grandmotherly state), a few men around who make it clear that they’d like to be more than just friends or coworkers. But, and this is another super frustrating thing about “looking for love”, the ones that chase after me are rarely my type (with the exception of the aforementioned “one who got away” :)).
To be fair though, part of my problem is living in a state where the male mentality and behaviour regarding lifestyle, mental/spiritual/physical attitudes, and marriage is extremely far from my own. So my pool of potential mates, one with whom I could mesh well and love as a life partner, is very tiny.
Oh, BTW girls, it is a HUGE myth that the ratio of men to women up here is 10-1, that may have been true during the early pipeline days but not so today, nor for the past 20 years or so. Nowadays, according to the Anchorage Indicator (a census like publication) it’s 1.05-1.
And besides that, we Alaskan girls have a saying (a very true one).
“The odds may be good, but the goods are VERY odd”. 
