NO! You can’t do it!
NO! There isn’t enough time!
NO! It’s not going to happen!
NO! Not now!
How do you feel about no? I hate it! I’ve always believed that no was the great limiter, the false barrier between success and failure, the refuge of those with limited imaginations.
OR IS IT?
I often find myself holding my tongue when I hear new ideas knowing (wrong word…how would I know…), believing (better), based on my experience or instinct that we would better served spending time on something else.
But then you re-think and wonder what if?
What if you just don’t see it? What if it’s really the best idea in the world and you just hate it for one reason or another.
And then you re-think again…
What if you are right? What if you are wasting time and the real idea, you could have nurtured and pushed, never sees the light of day!
What a dilemma! What do we do?
And then I read this:
“It comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much.”
Steve Jobs
JOBS SAYS NO!
Think about that. He is talking about success. IPOD, IPHONE and he says “no.”
SO? When do was say no? When don’t we…
What do you think?
Is it about NO?
“NO” is a bit like falling down. Like been pushed back. But one NO means nothing, doesn’t it?
You say, Jobs talks about success. So, what is success in conjunction with NO? One NO too much at the wrong time can lead to disappointments but plenty enough also save you from wasting time or money.
No answer up to know – but what about this: “Success consists of getting up one more time than you fell.”*
So, if you have the power to say NO to a NO, there must be something good in what you’re representing.
*) Quote from a song (“Dr. Ring-Ding”), does somebody know the real author?
There was once an Ox and a mule.
The farmer rode the mule to town daily and the mule would rest for the day.
The ox ploughed the field and was suffering from fatigue. The mule’s ‘idea’ was for the ox to play ill and being sick did not have to plough the field the next day. The mule did it instead!
What a bad idea.. He should’ve said NO!
If you don’t understand then, sometimes an idea can produce more work than it is worth, only to yield the same result!
So put your thinking caps on people, we are HTW!!
That’s definitely worth a thought or two.
You see, there’s a feminine pov: Some of us, the well raised women of the western and eastern hemisphere, have been teached to never (never?) bluntly say NO. Well, almost never. You know the exceptions, Gentleman. Myself, having been raised within a rigid and tight Prussian household and educated at some public schools – I well remember how much my mother, my father and my teachers regimented me, when I allowed myself to say “No”.
I had to shrug that off. It wasn’t easy. Too often I was trying to find a way around this two-lettered word. But I learned. And today I know it’s true: You have to say NO once in a while. Whenever you feel something isn’t the way it should be. Since the Better is the enemy of Good (Voltaire)
At iMpact, we try to say “No, but….” Simply saying “No” doesn’t engage in conversation, and doesn’t imply a willingness to help solve the question, problem, or issue. “Can we do this?” “No, but we can do this…or if we change this parameter to this, we can do it.” It’s worth a shot…every time you think you should say “no,” start with “no, but…” and finish the sentence.
Peter — love it — know when to say to no…..as a measure of success
Angelika — sometimes no is really no…..no?
and — glenn — no — not as a conversation stopper — but as catalyst!!
No can be positive – if said right — positve no – ing???