Life Lessons from Saying No
Just the other day, I asked someone to help me out with an errand I needed to run. They hesitated when I asked, but were able to tell me that their calendar was fully booked and they would not be able to help me this time. They were clearly nervous telling me this, but I appreciated their transparency, which allowed me to make other plans to get this task achieved.
Just say no
A lot of people I know find it difficult to say no. They are nice to a fault — they would even go so far as to inconvenience themselves to make others happy. In principle, this niceness is good! However, I have observed that most successful people have a very refined ability to say “no.”
For these people, saying no isn’t based on sentiments or emotions, but on empirical facts and evidence. They realize that time and resources are scarce and thus need to be judiciously used.
The next time someone has to make a hard decision of saying no to you, take it in good faith and admire him or her for the courage to say no.
