I AM HUMAN. First, I start with this. I am not some hero out of Greek or Hollywood mythology. I am a man with flaws (and strengths) and I need a hand sometimes to get through this ridiculous existence.
(If you don’t think existence is ridiculous, just watch this).
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Once I admit that I need help with something, instead of thinking something High School taught me like, “how can I hide my weakness or slowly overcome it?” I ask myself, “who do I know that knows this?”
Lately, I’ve been getting a little overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I’m leading/doing. I’ve got 8-10 projects going and most of them are making some money for my bottom line.
That’s a good thing. I’m an entrepreneur, which means I start things for a living. The challenge of this new level of success is that I need to keep track of all of my promises. One of those projects includes a lot of travel… with the travel and the sheer amount of work, I was starting to see things slip through the cracks.
So I reached out to a friend and mentor who is an accomplished CEO. I asked him, “What does it take to run your life like a CEO would?” Right away he asked me questions I’d never thought to answer. It was a little embarrassing to be honest. Then I just relaxed and started trusting him. I learned more in an hour than I could have found using Google, and at the end of the hour I asked him, “would you be interested in doing this regularly?”
He said, “yeah! I love talking about this stuff! How about once a week?”
Now we meet weekly and he’s helping me double my revenue while reducing my time commitment.
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WHEN YOU ASK FOR HELP, HERE ARE THE 5 STEPS I RECOMMEND:
- Admit you have an area for improvement (sometimes called a weakness).
- Spend 2 minutes writing down every question you have about this area.
- Think of 3 people who might know the answers to some of these questions.
- Call them or email them and ask for a few minutes to help you with some direction (about the area).
- Thank them profusely and ask if there is anything you can do for them!
Bonus! Ask them if they are interested in doing this regularly.
PS. This is called recruiting a mentor… and you can do it over and over and over again for anything. Have any questions or hit a snag? Let me know.
Originally posted on my humble personal blog.
Also by Dale Thomas Vaughn
How Guys Go From Tough and Alone to Evolved and Accountable | Would It Be Okay If Life Got Easier? | Three Ways to Be A Better Man at Work | How to Get Booked for a TED Talk in 5 Steps |