3 important rules to follow

Here are the a few simple yet important rules to follow when you’re using this strategy.

Rule one: Find a schedule and stick to it. Tell the person you’re going to send them an e-mail every day for the next 30 days, or whatever time period you’d be happy with knowing you tried your hardest if you do decide to quit and give up. Then add a reminder to your phone because you’re already busy; probably just as busy as the person you’re trying to reach. If you’ve got an iPhone, this means just pulling up your calendar, setting an event for 9 PM every night—or whenever you know you’re most likely to be at a computer—setting it to repeat daily, and then acting on it consistently. Don’t plan on missing any of these. If you know you’re going to be away for a period of time, don’t commit to this plan.

Rule two: Be respectful. Tell them if they ask you to stop, then you will—and stop if they ask you to, don’t keep asking. There’s always a fine line between persistence and desperation, and you don’t want to cross over into desperation. This requires some personal judgment skills, and you can apply this to a lot of other situations that require some degree of persistence, so always check yourself and ask “am I acting desperately, or am I acting persistently?” I’m not sure there’s a rule to know when you’re one or the other; I listen to my gut feeling first, and then I reason with myself.

Rule three: Make the reasons for meeting good. Don’t just come up with lame excuses for why someone should meet with you. Put some thought into it, and actually sell the person on how they’d benefit from meeting you. What...