Why this matters

Your life sure would be a whole lot easier if everyone just said “yes” to you all the time.

You’d have the job of your dreams, pots of money, and you’d never feel stifled, frustrated or bored.

I guess your life’s not like that?

The fact is, it can be extremely hard to get a “yes”. And it’s not surprising. Other people are busy. They have their own priorities and agendas, which you may not fit into. They’ll have hundreds of ideas to consider, not just yours.

Given these challenges, you can see why people sometimes resort to using their authority to persuade – shouting at their children, pulling rank at work, and so on.

But, although this might get a “yes”, it’s often not an enthusiastic one. This reminds me of a line from the film The Break Up, where Jennifer Aniston’s character says to Vince Vaughan, her husband “I want you to want to do the washing up”.

Persuasion’s like this. You want people to want to do what you ask.

Fortunately, as you’re about to discover, there are many simple ways you can get much better at this.