The Art of Asking: How I learned to stop worrying and let people help

If you love people enough, they’ll give you everything.

I think I asked … because I trust you enough to let you help me. I mean it.

next several minutes people came from all directions and they spoke to me, saying they had seen me in the rain and that they were touched. I didn’t really think it was that big of a deal at the time. It was an easy choice. For the rest of my decade-long career, people occasionally came up to me and said they’d seen me in the rain.

When I became a musician, the music worked the same way. Once I allowed people to share the songs, and there was no fixed price enforced by the label (or the store, or any other broker), things changed. People trusted me, and one another, more than before. I kept faith. Giving away free content, for me, was about the value of the music becoming the

After dinner, Indiana drove me to my ninja gig, which I’d been twittering and texting into existence for four hours straight: I’d twittered back then texted the guy who knew the bar owner who was keen to host the gig, I’d twittered then texted the person who was willing to loan a keyboard, and I’d twittered everybody in the world to please tell Ice

Sxip’s Kickstarter proved a theory I’d had, but never tested.

And when he’s

Each night onstage, I would introduce them all towards the end of the show and announce that these performers had come on tour with me for no fixed salary and were relying on the audience. The five of them would rove through the crowd during the next song, holding their boots to collect donations. Some nights, they made less than a few hundred doll

And so you will take the coffee, because the truth of the matter is that your acceptance of the gift IS the gift. And if you’re not in a hurry, you will also draw the barista a picture, or draw a picture for his friend who’s a huge fan, or tell her about the Ben Folds song.