Can I Pick Your Brain?

Can I pick your brain?

“I would just love to pick your brain over a cup of coffee.”

“Hey, would you mind doing me a huge favor and look over my project?
My ebook? My idea? My business?

Translation:
“Hey would you mind handing me 200 bucks out of your pocket?” or
“Hey, I would love to extract all the expertise from your brain in
exchange for a $3 cup of coffee. Will you let me?”

And of course, when you turn down these most lucrative requests or
ignore the email, the comments  quickly become “that arrogant, `thinks she’s
too good for anyone`, jerk” and let’s not forget,  the old faithful, “What a bitch!”

Do you think you’re the first person to come up with this great idea?

Most likely, they are getting tons of emails/requests to do this and
even if they accepted a minimal 4-6 a week, that’s a lost day in their life,
the life of their family and their bank account.

Why would ANYONE expect ANYONE to do that?

When you ask someone to give you a discount or worse, do something
for you for free or as a favor, you are telling them that you don’t believe
their time is of any value -at least not to you.

You are saying, “I value ME more than I value YOU or your time,
so please do this for ME for free.”

When you ask someone for a freebie, you are stating that
their time, energy or product has a value of zero. Actually,
you are asking them to hand you money.

IF their product is worth 200 bucks, and you asked for a 50% discount
– you just asked them to hand you 100 bucks.

If they get 150 bucks an hour (whether you think they deserve it or not
is immaterial) and you ask to pick their brain for an hour, you’ve just
asked them to hand you 150 bucks.

This might be OK if you are old friends or close family, BUT most of the
time it’s not a friend or family member, it’s a stranger, and it’s NOT OK.