I try to keep this in mind whenever I have approach anxiety with talking to someone in public: if I simply make the attempt, the interaction was 100% successful. All that matters was that I was able to summon the courage to talk to the person and each time I choose to talk to them instead of cowering away improves my approach skill that much more.

In this mindset, the ball is entirely in your court. You are not playing the game against the person you are trying to approach. They have nothing to do with it. You are playing the game only against yourself and your anxiety, and each time you beat your anxiety and decide to make the approach, regardless of how the interaction goes, it's a 100% success.

This is an exercise in outcome independence. If I go up to someone in the park and ask how their day is going and they look at me like I'm a crazy person and tell me to fuck off, that is 100% successful simply because I overcame my anxiety and made the attempt. That's where the battle is, only with myself. How the other person reacts to your attempt is wholly irrelevant because you are only playing this game with yourself.

Striking up a conversation with an old man in the park or a hot girl in the club become the same because it's the same game of whether you did it or not. And every time you do, regardless of outcome, it's a success because you got over the initial hurdle.

Just simply getting over a fear of talking to strangers and making the attempt is all that matters, how they react is irrelevant. The important thing is that you choose to take the more difficult path of improving your social skills and conquering your approach anxiety rather than shying away, and each time you take the righteous path it's another victory in your battle of self-improvement, no matter what the outcome is.

You are playing this game only with yourself. If you make the attempt, it's 100% successful.