I spend a lot of time coaching people on how to ask for help without sounding dumb.  I’m a firm believer in getting the help you need upfront instead of spinning your wheels on the backend- 2:00 am alone in the office is never fun (banker flashback). 

So I love this quote from Michael Wilbon, an ESPN commentator and sports writer, who was working on an article in the early 1980s and needed some help.  His boss ordered him to call former Boston Celtic’s coach and basketball legend Red Auerbach.  Wilbon said he might as well have been asked to call God.  Wilbon started off the conversation by apologizing for interrupting Red’s evening at home, to which Red responded “kid, if it’s a choice between interrupting me or writing something stupid, call.” 

What an amazingly generous response!  Wilbon went on to say that he took Red up on the offer periodically over the ensuing years.  Think about Red the next time someone asks you for help or assistance-if you’re in a rush, you’re on a deadline, you’re not interested, take a minute and remember that it could very well be you next time on the other end in need of help.  

Sports fan bonus:
Boston.com Sports

This one might rival our airline passenger (An Unlikely Hero).   An unsuspecting waitress serves a discerning food critic and lands her joint on GQ’s America’s Best list.  Tomatoes Apizza, a Metro Detroit pizzeria, received the following note from a customer:  “My compliments to Danielle, our waitress who took the order, put down her pad, and under an emergency staffing shortage prepared our pepperoni pie exactly right.”

Danielle Brehm, the waitress, had no idea she was serving Alan Richman, a GQ writer on a high profile, 20,000-mile search for the perfect pizza.  Danielle’s quick thinking and willingness to jump into the void proved invaluable to Mike Weinsten, Tomatoes Apizza’s owner.  In a time of crisis, Danielle simply stepped into the breach. She had no idea who she was serving.  “She took care of him,” says Weinstein, emotion in his voice. “She made a solid pie.”

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This week, an amazing thing happened. An airline passenger spoke up, raised a red flag, and saved the lives of nearly 300 people. It was an international flight from Chicago to Japan, and a passenger noticed a fuel leak on the jetliner. The passenger alerted a flight attendant but his concern was dismissed out of hand. The passenger, who also happened to be an Air Force sergeant and an air refueling boom operator, continued to watch and began video taping the fuel leak from his seat. Shortly thereafter, he spoke up again, this time saying: “Ma’am, it’s an emergency.”

With that, the flight attendant alerted the crew and pilot-who had been perplexed as to how they were losing 6,000 pounds of jet fuel per hour. The pilot diverted the plane to San Francisco and later admitted they would have never made it to Japan. The Air Force sergeant is today being hailed as a hero for averting disaster and saving the lives of ~300 people.

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I recently took a fabulous Webinar on marketing and social media (Colleen Wainwright, www.communicatrix.com ) that mentioned something that made perfect sense to me-the content you provide online to your readers should follow the 95/5 rule-95% of what you post should be useful to others; the remaining 5% can be reserved for shameless self promotion (SSP).

Going forward, I promise to stick to this formula.  It is pure coincidence that this post comes at exactly the time I am launching my long-overdue blog.  I know that I owe you all at least 19 additional posts before again even thinking of mentioning a promotional tidbit…  You have my word.  So without further ado, here goes-the best SSP Great on the Job could ask for.  Apparently, it’s time to reach out to Wal-Mart.

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Sunday, May 24, Eduardo Castro-Wright, Vice Chairman of Wal-Mart, was interviewed for the NYT business section.  Castro-Wright was asked, among other things, what business schools should be teaching more or less of.  Here’s what he said:

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