saying. And then the term came to my mind, a term people
often used in church to describe the duty one had to
administer our own and our world’s—and therefore God’s—
resources with honesty, accountability, and responsibility.
“This is really stewardship for you, isn’t it?” I said.
His voice immediately strengthened.
“Yes! You’re the only one who understands,” he said.
And he hired us at that moment. By showing that I
understood his deeper reasons for being and accessing a
sense of similarity, of mutual belongingness, I was able to
bring him to the deal. The minute I established a kind of
shared identity with this Christian, we were in. Not simply
because of similarity alone, but because of the
understanding implied by that moment of similarity.
THE POWER OF HOPES AND DREAMS
Once you know your counterpart’s religion and can
visualize what he truly wants out of life, you can employ
those aspirations as a way to get him to follow you.
Every engineer, every executive, every child—all of us
want to believe we are capable of the extraordinary. As
children, our daydreams feature ourselves as primary
players in great moments: an actor winning an Oscar, an
athlete hitting the game-winning shot. As we grow older,
however, our parents, teachers, and friends talk more of
what we can’t and shouldn’t do than what is possible. We
begin to lose faith.
But when someone displays a passion for what we’ve