I first heard RSW say the phrase If I Don’t Ask, I Won’t Get as part of his explanation for how it came to be that he’s able to do so much dope shit. Richard says this was how his father operated: by this motto. RS Wurman learned from ML Wurman that there’s always a better table at the restaurant. Always a better room at the hotel. And that is up to me to come up with the confidence to ask for what I want.

Click on the image below to see Mr. Sagmeister’s story about an extraordinary ask that Richard made of him for the WWW conference, and the way that Wurman’s karmic boomerang looped back around to offset whatever injuries were involved in satisfying that extraordinary, impossible request.

Click on the image below (they won’t let me embed the video here) to see the short film he and his colleagues made in honor of RSW’s life motto.