According to Steve Jobs, ’asking for help’ is one simple and effective choice in life you can make that separates the doers from the dreamers.

Apple’s co-founder and tech genius shared a story that illustrates this ‘1 choice’ which is an uncommon trait found in the most successful people. Here’s an excerpt:

”I called up Bill Hewlett [co-founder of Hewlett-Packard] when I was 12 years old.

‘Hi, I’m Steve Jobs. I’m 12 years old. I’m a student in high school. I want to build a frequency counter, and I was wondering if you have any spare parts I could have.’

He laughed, and he gave me the spare parts, and he gave me a job that summer at Hewlett-Packard … and I was in heaven.”

Further, Jobs added:

“Most people never pick up the phone and call. Most people never ask, and that’s what separates the people who do things from the people who just dream about them.”

In short, a single phone call greatly impacted Job’s trajectory and life. It taught him to be willing to ask for something he wanted.

But, most people don’t ask for what they want or need. Therefore, most of the time, nothing happens and people’s dreams, goals and desires go unrealized.

Sociologist Wayne Baker from the University of Michigan wrote a book called All You Have to Do Is Ask: How to Master the Most Important Skill for Success. In his research, Baker found that the ” — person who helps frequently and also asks for help frequently — is the most well-regarded and also the most productive”.

You must be willing to ask for help, which can be daunting because it requires that you lower your personal protective shield and admit to someone else that you need help.

The refusal to ask for help is a kind of arrogance, a blind insistence on doing it all by yourself no matter what, because along with it comes the message that no one’s help is worth the price in vulnerability it will cost you.

Among people, the refusal to seek help is not rugged individualism; it’s a function of fear. Not that there’s nothing to fear. Asking for help requires not only the admission that you need help, but also the willingness to allow other people some say in your personal affairs, which inevitably triggers the fear of falling into the hands of knuckleheads, petty tyrants and control freaks.

Asking for help is an admission that you’re ready for action and prepared to put your dreams to the test. The trouble with asking for help, in other words, is that you may get it!

But, it’s important to understand that when the most successful people want something, they’re willing to ask for it. If a 12-year-old Steve Jobs could do it, so can you.

1. https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/steve-jobs-said-1-choice-in-life-separates-doers-from-dreamers.html
2. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/passion/201601/the-power-asking-help