Getting Things Done With Unreasonable Requests

Getting Things Done With Unreasonable Requests

Your number one job as an extraordinary entrepreneur is to have an extraordinary vision. Your number two task is to execute until that vision comes to life.

If your vision is important enough you most likely can't do it all yourself. That's why you build an organization in the first place. If you're more of a lone ranger you have contractors, or outsource relationships, or joint venture partners. Problem is, once you have these relationships, these people must be in action or you get nothing.

Key question: Does anyone do anything meaningful without someone asking him or her to, and without them promising to it in return?

I call this a request, and making requests is the thing that causes people to get things done. Want something done? Just ask. Little requests are easy. People say yes.

But big requests carry their own little problem.

Most of us, even leaders, hate rejection. So we only ask for small things, easy-to-do things, wimpy things. It's rare that we ask for what we really want.

We cut back our expectations. Our scaled-down requests make it easy for others to say yes, but those requests get us results far below what we really want. After a while, we just accept the fact that we can't ask too much from people, and our expectations drop without our realizing it.

Here's a little secret that can make things easier for you:

A request is not a demand or an order. When you are "asking" (that's what makes it a request) people can say "No." Or they can counter-propose something different. They can renegotiate.

In each case, you'll get something, and that something is always better than nothing. Often it's a whole lot better.

So go ahead, and be unreasonable.

Ask for the moon.

Ask for whatever it is you need and want -- no matter what.

"Ask, and it shall be given you; . . . knock, and it shall be opened unto you," says the Bible. If you are going to knock, don't be meek about it.

Knock on the big doors. Knock loudly.

Someone might just answer.