If you don't ask, you don't get!

If you don’t ask, you don’t get…

In the UK there is traditionally a culture of children being seen and not heard.

This culture turns kids into adults who are afraid to ask questions.

If you’re afraid to ask questions, then you’re never going to be able to achieve anything significant in life.

Thankfully my mum believed that children should follow their innate curiosity and encouraged me to never be afraid to ask questions.

As such, I’ve never been afraid to ask questions.

Whether it be a question to understand why something does or doesn’t work, a question that goes against the grain of what others have suggested would be possible… or a question asking somebody for help, on a personal or business level.

I am steadfast in allowing my curiosity to always lead the way.

I have countless stories of when I’ve won big simply because I was prepared to ask questions that most nobody else would even dare to ask.

On one occasion, I was able to get the flour miller in our bakery business to lend us the entire funds required to buy the freehold premises where our main bakery was located.

This happened despite the fact I was told by the CEO of the company that it would be impossible for them to help, since what I was asking for was an amount that was 10x the highest amount they’d ever leant to a customer before.

By simply asking him to present the idea to the rest of the board, for him to ask a question that he’d never asked before, I was able to make something happen that seemed impossible.

A few years back, I was developing a solo artist in the UK who was struggling to get the songs required to make a significant impact.

This particular artist was well funded, but was in a situation where without the songs, they were unable to even think about starting to build an audience.

The particular songwriter I wanted to get them with was in high demand; they’d recently had a number 1 global hit song, and was widely regarded as one of the top songwriters in the world.

I was told categorically, that in the unlikely event that the songwriter was able to do a session, it would be to get one song written and there would be zero chance of doing more.

Anyway, undeterred by hearing this, I presented the vision for the project to the songwriter and the idea that in order for us to make this work we needed to get at least 4-5 songs down.

In the end there were 6 or 7 songs that got written, 5 of which got recorded and produced… by one of the top producers on the planet, who was secured because I was unafraid to ask the question! 

One of the tracks was perfect for FIFA and so I sat down with the music supervisor from EA and asked her the question… please can you put this song in FIFA?

She said it was perfect and the song ended up being placed.

That song now has over 100m streams / views across DSPs.

All of this happened because I was not afraid to ask.

Next time when you’re feeling afraid to ask a question because:

-Somebody told you that it will never get agreed

-The question seems daft and your ego is trying to stop you from asking it

-Or any other self imposed objection…

This time, just go ahead and ask the question anyway…

…maybe you’ll be surprised when the answer you get back is a yes!

-The Baker 

It's High Time for change | #TheTimeToDoIsNow