The Art of Asking is a book about cultivating trust and getting as close as possible to love, vulnerability, and connection. Uncomfortably close. Dangerously close. Beautifully close. And uncomfortably close is exactly where we need to be if we want to transform this culture of scarcity and fundamental distrust. (Location 59)
Note: This is a book about cultivating trust
it isn’t so much the act of asking that paralyzes us—it’s what lies beneath: the fear of being vulnerable, the fear of rejection, the fear of looking needy or weak. The fear of being seen as a burdensome member of the community instead of a productive one. (Location 287)
working in The Street wasn’t like working in the theater. The Street is different: nobody’s buying a ticket, nobody’s choosing to be there. On the street, artists succeed or fail by virtue of their raw ability to create a show in unexpected circumstances, to thoroughly entertain an audience that did not expect to be one, and to make random people care for a few minutes. The passersby are trusting you to give them something valuable in exchange for their time and attention, and (possibly) their dollars. Something skilled, unexpected, delightful, impressive, something moving. With few exceptions, they’re not giving you a dollar to confront and disturb them. (Location 537)
all of us come from some place of wanting to be seen, understood, accepted, connected. Every single one of us wants to be believed. (Location 602)
Note: We all want to be seen,understood and beieved
It was essential to feel thankful for the few who stopped to watch or listen, instead of wasting energy on resenting the majority who passed me by. (Location 685)
Tags: gratitude
Note: .gratitude be thankful for the few who notice
In both the art and the business worlds, the difference between the amateurs and the professionals is simple: The professionals know they’re winging it. The amateurs pretend they’re not. (Location 784)
Those who can ask without shame are viewing themselves in collaboration with—rather than in competition with—the world. (Location 858)
The opposite of “Indian giver” would be something like “white man keeper” … that is, a person whose instinct is to remove property from circulation … The Indian giver (or the original one, at any rate) understood a cardinal property of the gift: whatever we have been given is supposed to be given away again, not kept … The only essential is this: The gift must always move. (Location 1014)