This reminds me of Randy Pausch's method of getting someone to sit down for lunch. [1]
"And he asked a question. And I was like, I’m sorry did you say you were Tom Furness? And he said yes. I said, then I would love to answer your question, but first, will you have lunch with me tomorrow? And there’s a lot in that little moment. There’s a lot of humility, but also asking a person where he can’t possibly say no."
Although, admittedly, that's after you got them to say a few words to you and you're in front of a large group of people.
For those who don't know, here's the setting of this talk:
This talk is one in a series given at CMU called the "Last Lecture" series with the hypothetical setting of 'what if you had one last talk to give?'. Randy Pausch, a professor at CMU, didn't have to pretend. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and in August of 2007 (when he gave the talk) was told he had three to six months left to live.
If you haven't seen it, watch the whole talk. It's really good.
"And he asked a question. And I was like, I’m sorry did you say you were Tom Furness? And he said yes. I said, then I would love to answer your question, but first, will you have lunch with me tomorrow? And there’s a lot in that little moment. There’s a lot of humility, but also asking a person where he can’t possibly say no."
Awful advice. Not only does it not come across as humble, it comes across as cheap flattery and obnoxious insistence on something you don't deserve.
The initial moments after meeting someone are the moments when that person has the least interest in doing anything for you (next to the point before that, when you haven't met them at all). They lose almost nothing by making up some excuse not to do what you ask of them.
It's only after they've gotten to know you a bit, and after you've proven that you're interesting and valuable in some way, that they'll have a bit more incentive to do you a favor.
"And he asked a question. And I was like, I’m sorry did you say you were Tom Furness? And he said yes. I said, then I would love to answer your question, but first, will you have lunch with me tomorrow? And there’s a lot in that little moment. There’s a lot of humility, but also asking a person where he can’t possibly say no."
Although, admittedly, that's after you got them to say a few words to you and you're in front of a large group of people.
[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo 19:40
Edit:
For those who don't know, here's the setting of this talk:
This talk is one in a series given at CMU called the "Last Lecture" series with the hypothetical setting of 'what if you had one last talk to give?'. Randy Pausch, a professor at CMU, didn't have to pretend. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and in August of 2007 (when he gave the talk) was told he had three to six months left to live.
If you haven't seen it, watch the whole talk. It's really good.