We’ve heard this phrase before and it essentially means that if you sit back and be passive about things, things aren’t going to go your way.
I know that people never want to come across as too needy or annoying, but sometimes you need to be those two things in order to get work done. My current boss likes to call it “charmingly persistent”, but it’s so true. If you never speak up, you’re never going to get what you want and this doesn’t just pertain to work, it also applies to the rest of your life.
No one is a mind reader unless you have psychic powers or you fell into a tub of radioactive goo and now you have amazing abilities and just because you have “obvious body language”, it doesn’t mean that the other person is that perceptive. If there’s anything that I learned about becoming an adult it’s that you can’t ever be afraid to get what you want and sometimes you need to ask people to get to your goals.
What if you had this amazing idea but you needed investors? Are you going to give up on this amazing opportunity because you were too afraid to get in contact with influential people? Or follow up because they didn’t respond after your 3rd email?
What if there was an opening at the company you’ve been dying to work for but you could only apply through a referral? Well, are you going to sit back and let that opportunity pass by or are you going to feverishly search on LinkedIn and Facebook and see if you know someone that works there? And give up because they saw your Facebook message and didn’t reply?
Learning how to take initiative and putting myself out there has been one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned as someone who has graduated from college because it’s a trait that almost every employer is looking for and it’s also something that’s only going to benefit you for the rest of your life.