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« Making a difference makes a difference (on the bottom line) | Main | Career passion lessons from unusual science careers »

November 01, 2004

Comments

Lisa Haneberg

Curt - You are too kind. Can I have your car? :-)

Curt Rosengren

Good thing you're not expecting to get a yes on all of your requests, Lisa. ;-)

blork

While I think it's great to encourage people to stick their necks out, I can't help but feel a bit uncomfortable with this one. While the proverbial squeaky wheel does get the grease (even if it is "unreasonable"), that wheel will eventually be replaced because it's so darn annoying to everyone.

Personally, I think the world would be a lot better if we'd all be MORE reasonable, not less. I don't like this idea of being unreasonable to get ahead. It seems very self-serving and unfriendly.

Although I suppose it depends on how one defines "unreasonable."

Paul Cody

Saw your site tonight at Worthwhile
Magazine ,love the article on Unreasonable
Requests.Reminds me of the book Ross Perrot
wrote about just ask. will be bookmarking
your site
Paul Cody

Paul Cody

Donation question;
If your business could increase awareness
and donate a lot of money to one great
American charity,who would you choose.
We are a new Canadian company that has
partnered up with the Canadian Children's
Wish Foundation in Canada.We want to do
the same in the U.S.A but dont have a
clue on who to choose. Your suggestions
are appreciated

Curt Rosengren

Hmmmm...I was on my way to Mexico when Ed (blork) posted a comment and didn't see it. I want to follow up on that.

Ed, I think you have the wrong impression about what unreasonable means here. It's not stomping your feet and whining, "Do this for me." Unreasonable simply means that you have no realistic reason to expect that someone would say yes to your request.

Making unreasonable requests isn't about being a squeaky wheel. It's about throwing the door open to possibility without worrying about "failure."

I was telling a client about this idea shortly after Lisa mentioned it, and she said, "You'd have to have thick skin to do that." I said, "What thick skin? You're making the requests with no expectation that the answer will be yes. If the answer comes back no, you were right. Nothing lost. If the answer comes back yes, you've just had something happen that would never otherwise have happened. There's no risk. There's only upside."

Paul Lemberg

Curt,

I just saw this post about unreasonable requests. You said something about this originating with Lisa Haneberg. I'm wondering if she read my book, Faster Than The Speed of Change. Faster was published in late 1999 - there are two mini-chapters devoted to just this idea! In fact, we're currently writing an entire book about unreasonable action in business. Paul Lemberg, President, Quantum Growth Coaching - Business Coaching Franchise

Neil Underwood

Unreasonable requests? You're talking to the master of unreasonable requests....

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