I hate asking for things.

I don’t know what the deep psychological reason is for that:

• Future obligation
• Being turned down
• Putting someone out

It’s a probably a mix of those things.

Something I always try to understand is this: There is no such thing as a self-made man.

I like to pride myself as one. But I also know that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the help of many other people.

I don’t believe you can ever succeed in a vacuum.

Success, in whatever form you envision it, requires a great deal of work and help.

We were camping with our friends Deb and Mike Monaco last weekend in Mohican State Park. Deb recently sold her law practice to start a new business: ScanWorks, LLC. They are an Akron and Cleveland document scanning services company.

She and another attorney started this company to provide scanning, archiving and shredding for the Cleveland and Akron area.

What’s cool about their business is that they are attorneys. So your documents are in super safe hands.

At any rate, she was talking about how she was going to ask Bob Dyer at the Akron Beacon Journal if he’d write a story about their business.

He is a very famous journalist in Akron. He’s had national attention on the Dr. Phil show because of his strong stance on Kelley Williams-Bolar who spent nine days in jail for falsifying documents to enroll her daughters in the Copley-Fairlawn school district using her father’s address.

When she told me she was going to call up Bob and ask him to write about her business I secretly thought, “Jeez, isn’t he too busy for that? Is he really going to write about a new small business startup?”

The answer: Bob Dyer: Opposing lawyers shift gears, team up

He wrote about it straight away. And a really nice article at that.

Bob is a very talented writer. He didn’t hold back on his witty prose. It was a cool piece.

And all she did was just ask.

What’s the worst that could have come from that? He’d say no? He’s ignore it?

What if he wrote back and told her how out of line and ridiculous she was for asking him to write about her business? That would have made him look bad… not Deb.

This was an inspiring transaction. Just ask.

Nice work, Deb. Thanks for the small business support, Bob.

(Deb: now if you could just get him to link to your site in that article you’d be golden

Oh! And if you are in the Akron / Cleveland area, you really should check out ScanWorks document scanning services. They are fast, affordable and reliable. You can check out their site here: Akron / Cleveland area Experts in Scanning, Archiving, and Secure Shredding | ScanWorks, LLC.