Asking improves your chances of receiving

Chronic vagueness makes it hard for us to move forward with our goals.

Especially if we’ve enlisted other people to help us.

Web developers and graphic designers and video editors and even tattoo artists go through this on a daily basis. Instead of clients being specific and clear and direct about what they want, they simply expect the service provider to read their minds and deliver everything perfectly up to spec.

And the moment they discover that the result isn’t exactly what they hoped, they throw a fit. This isn’t what I had in mind, they complain.

This moment represents the simple problem of expectational clarity. Chronic vagueness. It’s at the root of all transactional unhappiness. And if we have any intention of making our dreams a reality, it’s something we have to anticipate.

We have to learn how to be better customers.

Over the years, I’ve hired hundreds of vendors and service providers and third party contractors to help me move forward with my goals. And every time we start a new project, I always remind myself:

Asking improves your chances of receiving. Remember to make their job easier. Tell them exactly what you want. Otherwise the process is going to take longer, cost more and satisfy you less.

Think of it as a form of kindness. Don’t just do it to get what you want, do it to help make other people’s lives easier.

Have you mastered the technology of making an effective request?