It’s hard asking for help. Getting rejected stings. But by not asking, you’re probably missing out on some great opportunities.

I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up I was a little bit of a dork. OK, OK... a huge dork. I sold comic books (and incidentally made 100 times what my contemporaries made in allowance, but that didn’t stop them from teasing me). I weighed 98 pounds and my nose was 11 of it.

What came along with this dorkiness (aside from therapy bills I still pay today) was a fear of rejection. If you ask out enough girls and get laughed at enough times, you become conditioned to not asking for things in the purest form of Pavlovian conditioning a young man can endure.

However, although request avoidance as a mechanism for pain avoidance is wholly appropriate as a skinny, pimply teenager, it can destroy business opportunities as an adult. As I was launching thoughtLEADERS LLC, I had this fear of asking people for favors or help. Why? I don’t exactly know. It was a combination of not wanting to impose upon them and not wanting to hear “no” or be rejected.

 …