The Art of Asking | Book by Amanda Palmer

Asking for help can be one of the hardest things to do. The reasons vary — you’re too proud, you’re too shy, you’re too worried about what people will think… but the consequences are almost always the same — you make things harder for yourself by not asking.

Amanda Palmer hasn’t always been great at asking for help, but now she is. She asked the world to help fund her album and received $1.2m in less than a month. She’s renowned for taking the time to communicate with her fans, repaying them for the hundreds of times that she’s couchsurfed at their homes.

The book is not only a great inspiration to ask for help yourself, but also a great read in its own right. Amanda Palmer has some awesome stories to tell and is so open about the details that you can’t help but relate to her and feel involved in the story.

If you’re not ready to commit to the whole book, you can check out a post I wrote a little while ago about her TED talk. The talk is a great intro to the book (and you’ll almost certainly want to read it after watching the TED talk).