- Right. I was just in Oslo, Norway just a couple weeks ago.
I was staying downtown in Oslo; I was doing an event there.
And they have the King and Queen's castle in Oslo, Norway.
Anybody ever been to Oslo? So I thought, you know what?
I wanna go meet the King and Queen.
So I just walk up the driveway to the castle.
There's no fence around it; I just keep walking,
1:30 in the morning,
(audience laughing)
and I saw the doorbell,
and all of a sudden, there's these two little booths,
like telephone booths, all of a sudden,
(stomps)
(cocks gun)
and I met with an armed guard.
It was ten feet from me to the guy,
and I realize -- he didn't say anything to me,
he had white gloves on, and I realized, okay.
And I just thought, Okay, I've gotta find a way
to meet the King and Queen. I wanna meet these people.
Find out how they live their life.
What's their biggest challenge or problem?
How can I contribute, how can I provide value?
How can I play the contribution game
and make a difference in their life?
They're people, they have drawbacks
and challenges and benefits in their life.
So I met a couple people the next day,
I said, This is what I did, and they said,
Great, we'll introduce you to the King and Queen.
We know them very well. Right?
Every year -- I didn't bring it tonight.
Every year, what I do is I create a "must meet" list.
Some of you've been to my house,
you've seen the "must meet" list.
What I do is, I started off, 15, 16 years ago,
I started off with 10 people that I wanted to meet
and that year, I met a few people,
and the second year I did it,
I wrote a goal to meet 15 people.
Just had their names on a piece of paper.
And that second year I did it,
I met 13 out of the 15 people.
One gentleman introduced me to 11 of the 13 people.
Last year, on my "must meet" list,
I met 84 of the 100 people.
And the interesting thing is, in 1967,
Stanley Milgram, in the United States of America,
did a wonderful case study, and in the case study,
he found that we were six degrees of separation
from anybody on Planet Earth. Now, because of social media,
and the internet today, which we call "World Wide Web",
and when I'm teaching people in Africa,
it's called "World Wide Wealth".
And the thing is is that we're now less than
three degrees of separation from anybody on the planet.
Any goal or dream that you have, that you'd like to achieve,
you can achieve it through
the resources that are in this room.
You saw Dan earlier up on stage,
you've just gotta ask.
You see, for every question that you don't ask,
the answer is no. So you're in the business of asking.
As of tonight, you are in the business of asking.
Just like children, they're in the business of asking.
Would you agree? They're always asking.
So for every question you don't ask, the answer's no,
and what's interesting is, I'm gonna show you,
is that when you make a request --
I want you to start making requests.
So when you go to the laundromat,
you go to the dry cleaners, ask if you can get 10% off.
I'll go to Vancouver International Airport, YVR,
always ask if I can get a discount.
I go to Jugo Juice. Right?
When you start going to restaurants,
what would it take to receive a complimentary dessert?
Complimentary appetizer? You just make the request.
What would it take to get a complimentary upgrade
to an executive suite, penthouse suite, honeymoon suite?
What would it take to get complimentary tickets?
You're always asking, asking, asking,
'cause you're in the business of asking.
And for every question you don't ask, the answer's no.
And when you start making requests,
right, when you start making requests,
one of three things is gonna happen.
Number one is: they'll accept it.
(marker squeaking)
They'll say, Absolutely. We'll accept your request.
We can honor that. Step number two is:
they'll decline it. They'll decline it.
(marker squeaking)
Here's the interesting thing about declining.
Most people will decline a decision for you of a request
because they don't have the authority to say yes.
They're not in a position of decision-making power
to say yes. I've stayed in some hotel rooms that are $5,000
a night just for making a request. Complimentary upgrade.
Anyone ever done this? Works, doesn't it?
Those of you who have a credit card and you pay
an annual fee, call up the credit card company and say,
Listen. You know I'm getting solicitation
from other competing companies for my credit card,
by telephone, by mail.
I'd like you to waive my annual fee of $120.
Anybody ever done it? Look around the room. It works.
Take that money, put it into savings.
So, decline it. Step number three is: they counteroffer it.
People will counteroffer.
(marker squeaking)
Say, You know what, we can't do this
but here's what we can do.
But you start making requests for things,
all of a sudden you start saving money.
Does that make sense? 'Cause for every question
you don't ask, the answer's no.
As you start making requests for things,
you start making requests.