If you do what’s expected of you and accept what life has to offer, the best you’ll get is high blood pressure and a beer gut. As Rosalind Russell says in the 1958 film Auntie Mame, “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!” Or, as my mother used to say, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.”
You gotta ask for more. I’ve taken this advice to heart and created a professional habit to ask for more—more time, more creativity, and always more money. Asking is hard, but the universe is wealthy and happy to provide for those who make the effort to ask. If you don’t ask for more, all you get is a paycheck. You’ll never be satisfied, and it will never be enough.
Dream big—if you want a pony, ask for a unicorn.