Just Say ‘No’! Godin Brings the Heat For Realz!
I read this post today by Seth Godin and was stunned by the simplicity and clarity:
If you’ve got talent, people want more of you. They ask you for this or that or the other thing. They ask nicely. They will benefit from the insight you can give them.
The choice: You can dissipate your gift by making the people with the loudest requests temporarily happy, or you can change the world by saying ‘no’ often.
You can say no with respect, you can say no promptly and you can say no with a lead to someone who might say yes. But just saying yes because you can’t bear the short-term pain of saying no is not going to help you do the work.
Saying no to loud people gives you the resources to say yes to important opportunities.
You’re talented. You know that you are. So what do you find yourself needing to say “no” to?
It starts slow: A flattering email asking for more time or resources (for free). A lunch that turns into two which turns into five. A $500 project that has now turned into a $15,000 one, although you’re still back at $500 in “funds acquired”.
Where are you suffering the slow death of “one thousand yes’es?” I like no. Don’t you?
This is a great message for moms. I spend a lot of my "mother of young kids" meetings (scouts, clubs, PTA) sitting on my hands, just so I don't raise them when they ask for volunteers.
It's better to do one or two things really well and with dedication, than to do a whole lot of things halfway.