If you want to be a millionaire

I was asked to quote for a job recently on some testing in an area that I had little experience in. After confidently replying to the customer “no problem, I’ll have a quote to you by the end of the day…”, I started googling furiously, trying to gain some understanding of at least what I was meant to be quoting on.

By the end of the day I was in a complete sweat. I was going round in circles trying to figure out what I ought to charge for this piece of work.
As the sun set, so did my desperation and I decided it was time to “phone a friend”.

Recently I had entered into some loose agreements with fellow consultants. Perhaps “partnering” is the correct word. Basically the idea is that, if I have too much work, or work I don’t typically perform comes my way, I pass it onto fellow consultants, and they vice versa.
So, in my hour of need, I rang on of them and I tell you what, it was like a miracle. As it turned out, my ‘partner’ happened to be an expert in this area and was quite happy…nay excited to quote and do the work if necessary.

What a fantastic result! Not only did I get to keep the professional relationship with my client I also get to help out another consultant.
I really learnt something from this experience and that was not be afraid to ask for help. In hindsight, I had been hesitant to ask for help because I thought it reflected poorly on me, I didn’t want to appear to be inadequate in front of either my client or a colleague.

Now I know, if I want to become a millionaire.. I need to be able to “phone a friend”………