"Imagination is a force that can actually manifest a reality. Don't put limitations on yourself. Other people will do that for you. Don't do that to yourself. Don't bet against yourself. And take risk. NASA has this phrase that they like, "Failure is not an option." But failure has to be an option. In art and exploration, failure has to be an option. Because it is a leap of faith. And no important endeavor that required innovation was done without risk. You have to be willing to take those risks. ... In whatever you are doing, failure is an option. But fear is not. 
- James Cameron, Address to the 2010 TED conference

I just spoke at a women's business conference and talked to a couple of students in a local business program who attended. Their teacher is having them do some 'rejection therapy' asking for things that they will almost assuredly get a 'no' to. Both girls seemed pretty mortified at the prospect of this experiment. One told me that she didn't even like to email someone for fear of saying the wrong thing and getting rejected.  

We all know business is based on relationships. But for that relationship to start, to get to kNOw someone, one of the two parties must take a chance to be rejected. When the model we operate with is about protection... avoid 'failure' at all costs, opportunities are wildly limited. We all have people we'd love to meet, connect with, partner with but we don't. We come up with excuses such as, 'This person will never respond, take my call or work with me. They have no reason to help me. I have no platform or connections.'  All of those things may be the present reality however do you really know what this person will decide to do? What's the truth? You never know until you ask.

In some cases people will agree to talk to you because everyone else doesn't contact them thinking the exact same thing as you are right now. Perhaps, for whatever reason, this person may like what you have to say and decide to help you!  Either way, take a chance. If they don't respond or they tell you 'no' - nothing really has changed except that later, you won't have to regret or wonder what may have happened had you made the attempt. 

As I explained to these young women, the more they see that they can survive the no's they get, the more confident they will become and eventually it won't be a big deal to contact someone at all. I'm not sure they believed me but I know this, they will be doing it, because their teacher is making them! We all need such a teacher don't we? 

Assuming it doesn't get lost, chewed up, or tossed in favor of an electronic device... the average classroom pencil can write about 45,000 words or draw a line 35 miles long! (One pencil could write out almost 3 copies of Go for No!)