Posts in March
Reports from early childhood indicate that ‘no’ was my first word.
Maybe that’s why I’ve never hesitated to say no in my professional life. Not because I’m a negative person. Rather the opposite: I’m quite positive about what I want.
It’s been my experience that really positive things can come out of a negative. They are two sides of the same coin. But here’s the tricky part: you have to say yes to harness the power of no.
Let me give you an example.
I said no to a new job opportunity not long ago because I really believed I could do great things as a consultant. I needed to close one door to open the other.
That was my ‘yes’ – starting a new business. Saying no allowed me to focus on what I really wanted to achieve in my career.
And recently, I turned down a potentially exciting project that would have brought me a lot of exposure. Not because I don’t need it, but because it would have prevented me from saying yes to a lot of other work for clients I value.
In a culture that reveres the yes, here are 3 reasons to just say no: read more