PERSUADE: Mastering the Cornerstones... 129 The set up of the discourse is important. Don't say, "Well, when I was selling cars..." which will immediately elicit eye-rolling. Say instead, "A valuable opportunity surfaced years ago in a similar situation...what we de- cided to do was.... and what might work here is..." Then they may listen to you. Become indispensable. Become a resource. Become a problem-solver. Become proactive. Not only does nobody like a whiner, no one respects one either. Putting on Your Game Face The longer you're involved in your career, the more likely it will be that a situation will arise that will become insur- mountable. It could be that the project you're involved in is well above your level of experience. It could be that you're having personal issues that are affecting how much focus and concentration you have for your work. It happens to everyone every now and then. If you find yourself in this kind of situation, don't steamroll through and pretend you can handle it. Believe it or not, you'll only lose credibility that way. You can save credibility by ex- tricating yourself from a situation--just make sure you do it with solutions to offer instead of having a meltdown in your boss's office over it. You may never be able to bounce back professionally in that environment after making a scene like that, so your best bet is to stop the snowball before it starts rolling down the hill.