PERSONAL GROWTH STRATEGIES & STORIES
Want To Achieve More In Life? Follow This (Unbelievably) Simple Principle
It’s so simple yet it keeps on opening doors
We wanted to leave the dinner early. The food was great but there was a family matter we needed to tend to. My wife and I were yet to get to the dessert section in the buffet. We could, unfortunately, see that other tables were going for seconds. The dessert seemed great!
My friend stood up and asked the manager if we could take some takeaway from the buffet! Buffet restaurants never allow that. We felt a bit awkward when he asked the manager. The manager listened to him and went away. Guess what, he took a couple of plates and filled them up with dessert items. On our way out, he happily gave us 2 boxes filled with them. We were obviously elated. The restaurant seemed to be happy too as they could delight a few guests.
A few years ago, my friend felt he needed a raise from work. He was kind of underpaid but so was the rest of the company. While other colleagues criticized this low pay and talked internally, my friend went to his supervisor and asked for more. His boss was ok with it as he was a stellar performer. My friend didn’t stop and kept on bringing pay in every review. In 2 years, his salary increased by 63%! His other colleagues were still complaining when he made all this progress.
As Shakti Gawain has said it,
You create your opportunities by asking for them.
Why we don’t do it?
It’s so simple yet we often don’t do it. We don’t negotiate even when we know we are getting the raw end of the deal. We feel awkward about asking for something. We dread getting rejected.
In life, most things are about putting in numbers. The more you do, the more will be your chances of receiving. I had to talk with 16 potential employers when I wanted to switch jobs. I eventually received 2 offers. I could have just tried with one or two and stop there.
Asking may give you what you need, not what you want
Following my friend’s footsteps, I asked (quite awkwardly) for a raise. I did explain why I wanted that. My employer didn’t give me a raise but gave me a bonus to cover my immediate financial needs. It showed me that they valued me enough to care for my needs.
Another colleague of mine did the same but didn’t get a positive response. He realized it’s better for him to move on to another company. He eventually became the Head of Marketing of a large conglomerate. But that all started back then when he asked for a raise. By asking, he realized he was being undervalued by the organization.
To summarize
Asking is like knocking on a door. Whether the door will be opened or not that we don’t know. But we increase the chances of it opening. But if we don’t knock, we wait for luck to intervene. At one point the door will open, but that might be too late for us.
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