Yesterday,
I was in a queue at the checkout.
The person ahead of me had a full-trolley and I only had three items.
I wasn’t in a major rush, but I did need to get back soon.
I thought it was really inefficient to wait so long for so few products.
“Maybe I should return when it’s not so busy?”
But I paused for a moment…
“Why don’t I ask and see what happens?” Nothing to lose.
So I politely asked the customer in front whether I could skip ahead.
And they graciously agreed.
So far nothing special?
Well, aside from the fact that this simple request saved me more than ten minutes of wait time.
I gained much more from the lesson.
This simple event sparked fresh insight.
In a moment of introspection, I asked:
“How many other ways am I ‘waiting around’ in life?”
The more I thought about it, the more I realised.
How much I, and all of us, fail to “ask”, even when people will gladly respond.
We convince ourselves that it’s better to avoid asking than to risk the disappointment of “no”.
We do it in our personal lives, and we carry it over into business.
That prospect who says “thank you for the information, I’ll think about it…”
Parting ways with their problem still unsolved, might otherwise have bought with a polite request.
Go check out my training video where I could share more about taking risks and “ask” for what we truly want: