#13 – When asking for help, appeal to people’s self-interest, never to their mercy or gratitude
“If you need to turn to an alley for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself.”
Source: Robert Greene’s “The 48 Laws Of Power.”