Do you know when to ask for help?

Many make it seem like a fucking crime to ask someone for help.

You often hear that you have to be resourceful…

self sufficient…

a problem solver…

all of these things are true, especially when you are an entrepreneur.

However, there was also something that bugged me about that advice.

In the same breath, people will often tell you to find a mentor

and hang around those who have the success that you want.

This to me is the very definition of hypocrisy!

Why the fuck wouldn’t I ask people who have the success I want for the answers??

Why else would I hang out with them (if we have nothing else in common)

Now, you may be saying:

“the advice is more toward smaller things you can solve on your own”

My answer to that is

“I already solve small problems on my own! I want them solved faster!”

That’s the key, I don’t want to have to spend more and more time search for the answer to solved problems…

…I want to spend my time working on making money!

this reminds me of something a calculus professor in college said to us.

This professor was an active engineer at JPL (Jet propulsion laboratory) in California.

When we would have math tests, he would allow us to use our books and notes to help in the test

but in turn, he would make the tests more difficult.

His reasoning was this (ill paraphrase since is been 16+ years since I had this class):

1) In the industry, when you are presented with a problem, your boss doesn’t tell you to put the books away before tackling the problem…only a fool would do that!

2) Also in industry, we don’t need to solve problems that have been solved, we need to use the tools available to help us solve the problems that have not been solved yet

This is how I feel about the situation…especially when it comes to small things like getting your landing pages set up, or how to set up an email list.

So, never be afraid to ask for help, even if you think the issue is a “small one”

But only do so after giving it your best effort to solve it