Sun 2 Sep 2007
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.
Speaking of unreasonable requests, I have an unreasonable offer for you.
By now, you’ve probably read your copy of Being Unreasonable. (If you haven’t, go get a copy at www.be-unreasonable .com, or wherever you buy books.) and you may be thinking about who you know who hasn’t read it yet.
Go ahead, buy some copies and give them away. Use Amazon’s free shipping and send them directly, or get a few copies and give them to colleagues, employees, friends.
I want to reward you for your generosity and give you a few gifts for buying multiple copies.
Buy 3 copies, send me a receipt, and I’ll send you an autographed copy of Faster Than The Speed of Change.
Buy 13 copies and you can be my guest at the Unreasonable Profits teleseminar series. (You can find out more about his at www.unreasonableprofits.com.) That’s a great deal; it’s about the same price as the teleseminar, and you get to give the books as gifts besides.
Buy 54 copies, and I’ll spend two hours on the phone with you – all at one time or in several shorter meetings; whatever is worth more to you. People typically pay $2,000 for a couple of hours for my world-class business advice – the kind that could change the future of your company and as you can imagine, I don’t have a lot of these “blocks” to give away, so act quickly if you’re interested.
Lastly - buy 144 copies of Be Unreasonable, you will be my guest at a closed-door round table that I’m holding for a few special guests. There is no price tag on this rare event, but my conference room only holds 10, which leaves room for nine people. This unique meeting will take place in November, and I guarantee you, being there will rocket your business. And I mean rocket in every dimension. We will change the way you think about your company, and if you’re like my clients – the ones who pay $15,000 for this kind of meeting – you could solve your most pressing problems and even figure out how to quickly double, triple, or grow your business ten-fold.
That’s my unreasonable request. Go out and buy some books. Lots of them. And send me the receipts.
