Here’s What Happens When I Try to Write Nothing

You’re going to think I’m kidding but I had an idea for the post before I finished typing the title of this post.

So, for the record, I’m not kidding.

This is exactly how it works.

If you think you’re going to write nothing or even better, going to try to write about nothing, then something will come out.

I’m on the train from Munich to Bensheim, in Germany. I’m coming from visiting an old friend in Munich and going to visit “family” in Bensheim. Family in quotes because as I was growing up, I thought they were (blood) family, but later I learned that they weren’t.

I’m going to tell a really long story in just a few lines to get the point across: the power of asking. It’s not even so much the power of asking but the daring to ask.

I had arranged a work visa for Germany when I was, I don’t know, 22 or something. But the organization I went through didn’t give you a job (well, they did, but I didn’t qualify). So, I kid you not, and if you’re not of a certain age, you won’t even understand this, but I typed letters on a typewriter and mailed them to German companies asking them for an internship.

Seriously. Little me, writing letters to big German companies, asking for an internship. It sounds even quaint all these years later.

After close to a gazillion formal-yet-friendly rejections, I finally gave up–and gave in.

You see, I was (and still am) a proud person. I’m very much of the mindset of “I can do it!” or even worse, “I can do it alone.” or “I don’t need help from anyone.”

Yep, that was me.

Here’s a message I would love to convey to young people today: ask.

Just ask. Ask for help. Ask for advice. Hell, ask for an internship.

Yep, I might add that the person you’re asking will appreciate your ask more if you’ve done some (or all) of the legwork first, but here’s the part you probably don’t yet get and much less believe:

People love to help people.

So simple, so true, and so hard to comprehend when you’re a stubborn, proud, “I can do it myself” person–like I was.

I gave up and I gave in and I called my “uncle” in Germany and he organized an internship for me before I could say Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung (yeah, Google that one, my friend).

I dared to ask for his help. To this day, I’m thankful to him for organizing that job. It literally, physically, emotionally, and psychologically altered the trajectory of my life.

Back to today. It’s decades later. My uncle is picking up me and my wife from the train station and we’re going to dinner.

All because I asked–and he answered–all those years ago.

Don’t think you’re (only) doing yourself a favor by asking for help, but try to comprehend the idea that the person you’re asking just might want to help you. Chances are good. Very good.

To quote from the subtitle of one of my other books, Decide: There’s usually a choice. It’s usually yours.

Ask.