They say that in life, it is the most tenatious people who always seem to get what they want. Let’s take this a step further.

When it comes to asking a woman out on a date, you ask once or maybe twice and that’s it. There are other areas of life, however, where it behooves you to become a pain in the ass.

Let me give you an example. I live in a building that has tandem parking and parking spots that are very close together.

My neighbors are inconsiderate and rude. Whenever they get out of their cars with grocery bags, they do the pinball maneuver in between our cars and scratch the side of my car. This really angers me because I am very respectful of other people’s things.

I would never open my car door and let it hit and mark up a car next to me. I also would never set my keys or my shopping bag on someone else’s car and scratch their paint so they have to spend a couple hundred dollars to color sand their car. That’s just not me.

So I’ve been trying to get the management company to move me into the big garage (which is reserved for people who live in the bigger apartments). There are four big apartments, and the people who live in them get the four good spots in the big garage.

So I’ve been asking for a new parking spot nonstop for a year. I call the management office, ask the woman on the phone about her day and then say, “Where’s my new parking spot?” Finally, as a result of my consistent badgering (or what like to call “persuasive talking”), I am going to get a new spot so my car will no longer be scratched. Now someone else will have my spot and get their car scratched for a while.

In life, you need to be really persistent in everything you do. Don’t ask for something once, and don’t expect someone to get back to you. Don’t ever expect anything.

You need to take a stand for anything you want in life. So the next time you don’t get want you want — whether it’s in business or in your personal life — take a stand for it.

If you’re dating online and you emailed a woman a month or two ago who didn’t respond to you, find her again online and send her another email. Now don’t send an email every day, because even persistence needs to be spaced out properly.

In my example with the car, I wasn’t calling every single day. That crosses the line from persistence into pestering. Pestering just drives people crazy.

A friendly reminder or call about something once a week or every couple weeks, however, is what makes people successful. Persistence is what you need to succeed in life.