Roslyn's Food For Thought - Ask For What You Want

Roslyn Rozbruch, my business partner and wife, is the guest author of this post. She shares her thoughts on how asking someone a simple question can spur you on to achieve your goals, both personally and professionally.

"If you want to achieve something, be successful, or be a certain way, you should ask the person who has that ‘thing’ you want — what did they do to achieve it?"

Many years ago, when I was in my late teens, someone said to me, “If you want to achieve something, be successful, or be a certain way, you should ask the person who has that ‘thing’ you want — what did they do to achieve it?”

I can’t remember who said this to me, but I do remember the timing was perfect because I had just dropped out of college (gasp) and decided to go in another direction in life. Why I left college is another story in itself, but in summary, I didn’t leave because of bad grades; I was always a good student and a follow-the-rules kind of person (and I still am!).

At the time, I really wanted to earn money and be independent. Not getting a college degree was my big “rebel” moment in life. My sister had a friend who was a hairdresser, and she had what I wanted — she dressed beautifully, lived in a nice house, and drove a fancy car; and I wanted that lifestyle. So I sat down with her one night and asked her many questions — how did you become a hair stylist? What school did you go to? How long did it take? And so on. In short, she had what I wanted, and I took notes so I could have “that thing.” And if you are wondering how that turned out, I worked in an upscale hair salon for 10 years and not only had a lot of fun but made a lot of money.

I have followed that recipe in my life for everything I want to achieve. I can’t tell you how many times I have asked someone, even in a casual way, like at a party, the question, “So what did you do to ...? ” I don’t necessarily follow everything that person did, but I do take the gold nuggets of information I hear that can be useful to me. It’s interesting, but I have found that my philosophies and how I live my personal life spill over into how I do business. The two intertwine with each other like a serving of swirled chocolate and vanilla soft-serve ice cream.

As I share this memory of my teen “Ah-ha” moment, I realize that being in our Insider's Circle Membership, Michael shares with you everything he did to become successful in the tax resolution industry to help you achieve what you want in your business. And to take this one step further, it was nice to see people at our Orlando conference talking to other people in the industry and sharing ideas — or as Michael sometimes calls them, “war stories.”

People sharing with each other what works or doesn’t work in their practice helps others because it keeps them from having to figure it out all on their own. And as I mentioned before, this works on anything. That’s how Michael lost weight and got fit years ago — he asked one of his friends what he did, and followed his friend’s diet and workout routine to get the results he wanted.

The next time you find yourself next to someone who has a quality you admire, you might just want to ask, “So what did you do to ...?”
- Roslyn Rozbruch