Asking for Help

- by Jaime Willis

You cannot do it by yourself.

No matter what goal you are trying to accomplish, I guarantee there will be a point that you need the assistance of someone else to get your goal done. The problem is that we are indoctrinated to believe that asking for help is a sign of weakness, when just the opposite is true. The most successful people I know are also the most likely to have a really strong network of support.

I mentor a couple of great students, one of whom just recently turned 19. As a young black male growing up in foster care in Washington D.C., Nick doesn't have access to a strong, positive male role model. And while I have many talents, there is simply no way for me, as a woman, to provide Nick with that specific type of mentorship. Not to be deterred, however, I decided to create a book for him that included the collected wisdom of all the successful men I knew.

Last week, I put the call out to all the men in my life -- friends, family, and coworkers. With only a few days to get the quotes in and format them, I wondered if I'd have enough responses to make this present work. Well, I should not have worried. The guys rose to the challenge spectacularly! In the end, I had almost 100 pages of material!

I hastily formatted, edited, and spellchecked the document, and gave it to Nick last night. He was incredibly happy with the gift and couldn't wait to begin reading the book "made just for him." This amazing gift to Nick would not have happened if I had been unwilling to ask for help.

Take a look at your goals and see if there is something you can ask for help on today!

------------------

Updates:

GREAT NEWS! I have gotten a lot of interest regarding this post and have even been given the opportunity to pitch this to a major non-profit as a potential book deal. I'd love more at-risk youth to benefit from the collective wisdom of the older male generations. Sort of like an "Uncle in your Back Pocket" guide to life.

Can you help?

1) Guys, I would love your words of wisdom for young men in topics listed below. You can email me your words of wisdom here.

• General Life Advice
• Personal Vision
• Work/Career
• Money
• Challenges
• Attitude
• Integrity
• Education
• Health
• Faith
• Love
• Family/Friends

2) Spread the word! Can you repost this to your own facebook page, twitter, blog so we can get the wisdom of men far and wide.

Thanks a million! You all are amazing!