The 15 Minutes I Got by Blocking a Doorway

I stood in a doorway and refused to let a man leave until he gave me 15 minutes.

At Dell, I had an 8am meeting with a Sales Director I knew opposed my idea, a Hispanic marketing pilot. He was bringing his managers. I was bringing mine. Nobody showed up but him. At 8:10, he stood to leave. I stood in the doorway and said, "Give me 15 minutes to take you through the program." Fifteen minutes later, I had his approval.

That's the first of seven principles I still use for taking career risks:

1. Get the resistant person 1:1 first. From what I've seen, it rarely works to present a risky idea for the first time to a group of executives. In public, people defend positions. In private, they listen. Had that group meeting happened as scheduled, he would have thrown spears at the idea in front of everyone.

2. Build relationships before you need them. Political capital gets spent in the moment you need it, not created there.

3. Know your numbers cold. Someone will find the edge case.

4. Speak up before you need permission to.

5. Take small risks first. Confidence builds over time.

6. Seek to understand before being understood. Most resistance is a misunderstanding.

7. Tie your idea to the company's stated goals. It's hard to argue with the company's own words.

Twenty years later, all seven still hold. Career risk isn't about boldness. It's about removing the surprise for everyone else in the room before you ask for the yes.

Which of these seven do you personally struggle with most?