The Easiest Way to Get What You Want

A salesman got a flat tire out in the country.

He opened his trunk, looking for his jack… but it wasn’t there. “What do I do now,” he thought.

Since he appeared to be stranded on a narrow country road on a hot summer day, he doubted anyone would be driving by to help any time soon. Seeing the spire of a church far in the distance, he resolved to walk to the far off village in the hope of borrowing a jack. It was a long way, and the day was becoming hotter. As he walked, he thought to himself, “I do hope someone in that town has a jack they can lend me.”

As he walked, beginning to sweat profusely, he thought, “I know what the people around here are like…they just won’t take kindly to strangers.”

A little later he thought, “Since they don’t know me, I really don’t think anyone is going to lend me that jack.”

And so he continued walking and imagining the worst possible outcomes to his predicament. No one in the town would be willing to lend him a jack, people would be so suspicious they’d even refuse to sell him one…and so on.

By the time he got to the village he had gotten himself so worked up in anticipation of the townsfolk’s negative attitude that he went to the square in the middle of town and shouted, “All right, since that’s the way you feel, you can keep your darned jack!” Not recognizing that the only negative attitude in that town at that moment…was his.

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How often have you invented myriads of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and unfounded fears? Think about it. How many times have you not asked for something simply because you were afraid to be refused?

The easiest way to get what you want in life is simply…to ask for it. The worst that can happen is you’ll be told ‘no.’ But then you may just get what you ask for. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.