If I need to influence you and you hold the decision-making power, then there is one word that describes my role: salesperson, and there is one word that describes your role: customer. Customers do not have to buy; salespeople have to sell, and influence without authority works the same way. You focus on the other person’s needs, not your own. You do not try to prove how right or how intelligent you are. You recognise that the other person does not have to agree, and you treat them with the respect any good salesperson would offer a customer. You engage with their needs, their priorities, and the difference you can help them create. If you can sell the idea, sell it. If you can change the situation, change it. If you can do neither, take a breath, let it go, and redirect your energy. Do not waste your life on what you cannot change, just invest your time in what you can.