取经饭局该不该收费？

    格雷厄姆愿意讨论她的知识能给对方带来什么裨益，对方面临什么样的问题，但她不会告诉你怎么解决问题。“任何能…帮助你盈利的讨论都属于咨询业务，”她说。“而那是我的知识产权，只能为付费客户提供。”格雷厄姆的战略咨询服务每小时收费350美元。

    以讨教经验为目的的午餐当然并不仅限于商业界。独角滑稽秀演员丹•耐南曾经为唐纳德•特朗普和希拉里•克林顿这样的名流表演。他说：“同行们老是向我讨教，而且居然还有脸不付钱。”在某次午餐上，他算了一下，大约花费了他一小时时间，外加20美元的餐费。他说更令人不爽的是，这事儿给人的感觉是：“我的时间居然不值20美元。”

    为了防止不请自来的午餐邀约，耐南也写了一本书《独角滑稽秀演员最佳指南》（The Best Book on How to Become a Stand-up Comedian）。如今，每当好奇的喜剧爱好者来寻求建议，他总会要求定下按小时计算的午餐费，同时不忘推荐自己的书。费用是每小时100美元，外加他的餐费，他认为为自己的才识标价合情合理。

    耐南说：“标价越高，人们反而越会觉得物有所值。”考虑到他表演收入高达1.5万美元，他觉得自己的咨询费已经很合理了。“如果有人愿意付那个价，你就值那个价。你看，佩顿•曼宁当四分卫每年能拿到1,800万美元，他值那个价吗？我看值。要价越高，别人就越尊重你。”

    Graham will freely discuss why her knowledge is beneficial, what kinds of issues she thinks others are facing, but she stops short at actually telling people how they ought to go about solving their problems. "Anything that's going to … help you with your bottom line or your profitability, that's a consult for me," she says. "That's intellectual property that I give to my paying clients." Graham charges clients $350 per hour for a strategy session.

    Brain-picking lunches are certainly not limited to business types. Stand-up comedian Dan Nainan has performed for the likes of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. "I get approached all the time by comedians who want to pick my brain. Then they have the gall not to pick up the check," he says. On one such date, Nainan calculated that the experience cost him an hour of his time plus $20 for lunch. More discouraging was the message "that my time's not worth $20 bucks," he says.

    To ward off any future unwanted lunch requests, Nainan too wrote a book, The Best Book on How to Become a Stand-up Comedian. Now, when inquiring comic minds want his advice, Nainan makes a point of designating an hourly lunch fee, along with a recommendation to buy his book. His lunch date consults are set at $100 per hour, plus the cost of his food, and he argues that there is justification for putting a price tag on your knowledge.

    "The more you charge, there's a kind of perception that you get what you paid for," he says. Given that he gets paid up to $15,000 to perform, he estimates that his comedic brain is worth at least that amount. "If someone is willing to pay that, then you are worth that. I mean, if Peyton Manning makes $18 million a year for being a quarterback, is he worth that? I would say yes. People treat you with more respect when you put a high value on yourself."