One of my favorite stories from the DASH book is the story of the man who was walking down a street when he noticed a man struggling with a washing machine at the doorway of his house. The man volunteered to help and two men began to struggle with the bulky appliance. After several minutes of fruitless effort, the gentleman said to the homeowner: "We'll never get this washing machine in there!" To which the homeowner replied: "In? I'm trying to move it out!"

While I can't tell you whether this story is true or not, I can tell you that this type of miscommunication is common. It happens all of the time in business. One group of salespeople from a company is pushing one product, while another group is pushing another competing product. Just as soon as a customer is being convinced of the merits of one product, another salesperson from the same company comes along to confuse the customer, resulting in no sales for anyone.

The same type of thing happens in families as well. One spouse will decide that it's time to eat more healthily just as the other spouse is returning from the grocery store with a carload of cookies, candy bars and ice cream. Or a parent will surprise the family by booking a trip to Disney World during the week of cheerleader or softball tryouts. These are the kinds of things that happen when people don't clearly communicate their plans to others.

One of the reasons we often fail to speak up about our plans is because we don't want to become subject to criticism from all of the naysayers. We figure that if no one knows what street our parade is on, then they can't come by to rain on it.

Another reason for our failure to communicate is because we don't want to look foolish if things don't work out. After all, it can be very embarrassing to say that you're going to win the race, only to finish in the back of the pack. Yet, in our efforts to save face, we end up playing the ultimate fool.

Put Up But Don't Shut Up (Part II)

Let's face it. You can't accomplish your goal by yourself. You need the help of others. And the best way to attract that help is to speak up. In fact, my big mouth is almost completely responsible for the growth of my company over the last two years. Through what seemed like casual conversations with others, I've been able to attract the contacts, talents and even financial resources to allow me to see many of my dreams come true.

For example, I'm currently in the process of putting together an informercial that will run on thousands of cable outlets across the country. When I first got the idea for the informercial, I knew nothing about making a commercial, buying air time or contacting celebrity endorsers. Fortunately, I didn't have to. My big mouth took care of that for me. The more I talked about my dream, the more the needed resources began to appear. I'd meet someone at a mixer and before I knew it, I'd have the name and phone number of the top voiceover person in the business or a person in the business of producing television commercials. In fact, as I look around the DASH office here in New York, almost every person here is the result of just such a chance encounter.

And I'm convinced the same "good luck" will happen for you; provided you speak up about your dream. You'll be amazed at the seemingly miraculous opportunities that will begin to come your way. A literary agent will ask to review your manuscript just because she overheard you talking about it while seated at the next table at a restaurant. You'll get a job at your dream company because you met the personnel manager while stuck in an elevator.

Don't laugh. Stranger things have happened. Yet, nothing can happen until you open up your big mouth.