Well, the Institute has landed! I signed on new lease space a month ago, and it feels great. What feels even better is how I negotiated the lease. The office space came with access to their conference room for a certain number of hours each month. That is great, since it is one reason I was interested in leasing the space. (I run a number of live support groups for women.) And of course this was put forth as “here is the price and this is what is included”. But what did I really want? I wanted even more hours included. So as I was looking at the space and admiring his building (which is very lovely!), I simply asked him, “Would it be possible to include this many hours in the same price?” He smiled and said he would think about it. When it came down to signing the lease, I brought it up again. (He didn’t bring it up!) “Have you thought about my request? Would you consider including more hours in the lease price?” This was uncomfortable. Asking for what we want and need is often uncomfortable. We fear rejection and ridicule. I knew rationally that if the answer was no, I could still have the office at the original price. But who wants to hear “no”? I made myself ask anyways, and decided to count it as a success regardless of the outcome. He smiled again and said, “Yes, I think I could do that.” It may sound like a small success, but those moments of discomfort saved me $1200 a year! (I would have had to pay extra money for the additional time I knew I needed.) Yeah! Remember, the answer to the question you don’t ask is usually no. So ask!