You’ve watched someone get taken by a scam and thought, I’d never fall for that. Almost everyone thinks that, and it’s exactly what makes people easy to fool. When you’re sure a trick won’t work on you, you stop checking.

The people who rarely get played don’t give themselves that exemption. They also have three other habits: they judge an ask separately from any favor that came first, they ask who benefits even when the advice comes from a friend, and they never make a decision on someone else’s deadline.

I learned the third one the hard way. In 2002, a business partner took more than $200,000 from me. He made money every time our money moved through his shop, and I never asked who benefits. I’d been building persuasion campaigns for years, and I still didn’t see it.

This card turns those four habits into four questions you can ask in the moment. And it gives you the sentence that does most of the work when someone pushes: “I’ll get back to you tomorrow.” A good offer survives a day. If you get pressure or guilt instead, you’ve learned what you’re dealing with.