You Can Go to the Well As Often As You Want

I’m sure you’ve all heard the old adage, “You can go to the well once too often.” It means that you can only ask another person for favors so many times before you wear out your welcome. This is true only if you fail to maintain your relationships. As long as you maintain your relationships, you can go to the well as often as you want. There are two things you need to do to maintain your relationships: First, regularly spend time visiting with the people you deal with (either in person or on the phone) when you don’t ask for things. If the only time you visit with these people is when you want something, you quickly become know as a “taker” or “user” and no one wants to do favors for that kind of person. Second, when one of these people needs a favor from you, make sure you come through for them in a big way. If you do this on a consistent basis, I can assure you that you well will never dry up.