I had an interesting day yesterday. I had a training session with one of my favorite group of participants. They are from Premier Milk (M) Sdn. Bhd. I have conducted a number of training programs here over the last one year. The group was highly responsive and we had loads of fun. The topic of the training was "Enhancing Relationships". We covered topics related to personal relationships (family) to professional relationships (colleagues, bosses, subordinates and of course customers).

We had plenty of laughs talking about personal relationships, especially the experiences when they fell in love for the first time when they were young; you know, the clumsiness, the butterflies in the stomach and the impromptu smile on the face when you are sleeping! We talked about the need to improve the quality of personal relationships (family), and how it could actually influence other areas of our lives, especially at work. We also had a practical session that guided the participants to get in touch with the deeper aspects of their selves.

Later in the evening, I had an appointment with one of my "Personal Coaching" participants. He had just set up his own business and was doing it on a part-time basis; he works on it after his normal day job. He encountered a problem marketing his services. He did not inform nor ask me what to do about it. However, over the last two weeks, I felt that nothing was moving on his end, although I had set up a timeline for him to follow to develop his business. Occasionally, I asked my wife to call him to check on the progress. There was basically no response from him.

Finally, as the deadline approached, he called to inform of the problem. I gave him a piece of my mind! I told him that precious time was wasted for his idling. All he had to do was be humble and ASK. Quickly, I fixed an appointment to meet a friend of mine who was good in marketing. The meeting went well and we worked out a few plans to get my participant's business moving. The best part was, my friend happened to have a ready market in hand for the services offered by my participant!

On the way back, I gave him a nice lecture on the importance of being humble and ever willing to learn and ask when the need arises. He said he was worried that no progress was taking place. That is when I said that, to ASK for help is far more superior! If he had done so earlier, we could have saved the precious two weeks!

This is a classic problem with majority of people. People simply refuse to humble down and ASK. Countless wonderful ideas and dreams are dead simply because those who thought of it refused to ask for help to make them a reality! Some do ask but they ask the wrong people, and eventually give up on it. For example, if you want to go into business, the person that you should ask advice from is a successful businessman or woman; not your closest friend who has no idea of what business is all about! It is like asking your plumber whether it was advisable to do a brain surgery! Unless your plumber is also a brain surgeon, my suggestion would look ridiculous wouldn't it! Make sure you know exactly what to ask and whom to ask. This is important to ensure that precious time is not wasted; that is your time and also the time of the person you are asking the help from!

A wise man said long time ago, "Ask and you shall receive!"