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How do you get whatever you want?
The answer is truly simple and profound.
All you have to do is… ASK!

The first key in asking is—guess what—asking for what you want… and not asking for what you don’t want. Sounds easy, right? Well, it’s actually more difficult than it sounds. Try asking for what you want for just one day and you will quickly become aware of the patterns of our brains, especially, if you tend to not get what you want.

Most people do not have what they want because they are simply, firmly and consistently asking for what they don’t want. In fact, they are asking for what they don’t want over and over. Questions like “Why am I so broke? Why am I in debt? Why am I so tired? Why am I sad? Why am I lonely?” These questions focus on the negatives—the things they don’t want.

The key is training our brains to ask for the specific things we do want, and conditioning this practice over time to stay focused on asking for what we want instead of being distracted by the issues we are dealing with. Just like the muscles in our body that grow stronger with training, our thinking muscles grow stronger the same way. Whatever we train our brain to think—to ask for what we want, to not ask for what we don’t want, and to stop letting what we don’t want happen—is what will become natural.

I will never forget what the late great Jim Rohn (one of my greatest teachers, mentors, and coaches) said, “The ground does not care what we plant. This could be deadly nightshade that can kill us in just a few hours depending on how much we eat, or this could be corn or even beans. The ground, like our brains, does not care what we plant.”

What we ask for is what gets planted in our brains. What are you asking for on a consistent basis? How are you asking for it?

The key to getting whatever you want is to ask intelligently by using these three simple questions…

1) What do I want specifically?
2) Who has access to give it to me?
3) How will I add twice the value until I get my desired outcome?

I will never forget how I achieved my first real job with PageNet. (Yes, it’s true. My first job was selling pagers as cell phones didn’t exist yet. Yikes!) When I was looking for my first job, I asked myself these questions…

Question: How do I make money?
Answer: Get a job.

Question: Where would I like to work?
Answer: A place that I could have freedom and make money.

Question: Who is getting this result I want?
Answer: my friend Adam was making money and had lots of freedom. He was 8 years older.

Question: Where does Adam work?
Answer: PageNet.

Question: Who at PageNet could give me a job like Adam?
Answer: Jim.

Question: How could I add value to Jim and get a job at PageNet?
Answer: Go ask Jim.

Notice how the questions above relate to the three questions…

1) What do I want specifically?
2) Who has access to give it to me?
3) How will I add twice the value until I get my desired outcome?
 

To put it simply, I asked for what I wanted specifically, who had access to give it to me, and how I would add twice the value until I get my desired outcome. But, the asking didn’t stop there. I proceeded from asking myself questions I knew the answers to, to asking others questions I wanted or needed the answers to. So here’s what I asked Jim…

Question: What would it take to work here at PageNet?
Answer (from Jim): Minimum 10 years outside sales experience.

Now, I was only 22 at the time, so I pretty obviously had never worked for a company as an outside sales representative. This led me to ask these next questions…

Question: What is an outside sales representative?
Answer Not sure.

Question: Who can help me answer this question of how can I add value to Jim and understand outside sales?
Answer: The people that work for Jim.

Then I spent the next 7 hours introducing myself to people as they left the PageNet office and got in the elevator. And, guess what I did on the ride down? I asked them questions… all the way to their cars.

“My name is Rich Campe and obviously you are very successful as you already work here at PageNet. I would really like to work here. Could you tell me more about what Jim values?”

I did this all day and I picked up clues on what was valuable to Jim. I learned he was married with 2 kids, loved mountain biking, was very competitive, loved to win, was a planner who followed a business plan, and was extremely passionate about beating his competitor MetroMedia.

So,the next day, I went to MetroMedia and did the same thing that I had done at PageNet. Ironically, MetroMedia offered me a job that same day.

The following day, I went to the library and wrote a 7-page business plan on what I would do in the first year in my new outside sale representative position. The business plan started with a color picture of me and the PageNet company mission statement. I then went back to Jim and presented my business plan, said I had 10 years plus of outside sales experience as a waiter and full-time student.

“Here is my business plan for the first year, and I already have a job with MetroMedia, but I would prefer to work with you. Are you ready to hire me?”

Jim’s response: “Wow! Give me till the end of today, and I will call you by 9 a.m. tomorrow.”

Jim called the next day at 8:46 a.m. and offered me a job as an outside sales representative.

I asked specifically for what I wanted from someone who had access to give it to me, and I added twice the value until I achieved my desired outcome.

All it took was for me to ask intelligently and to ask the right questions!