The 20th century French philosopher, Albert Camus, famously said “Life is the sum of all our choices.” How true!
Our choices do matter… what profession we choose, who we marry, who we spend time with, what we eat, what we read, and so on.
Many times we make a choice by not making a choice. We allow something to happen because we don’t say NO.
Often it’s easier to just go along, to stay in the flow, to not rock the boat. We get lazy or we’re afraid of hurting people’s feelings, including our own.
Is this you?
Do you keep an employee around who can’t help you win but, heck, they’re nice and they’ve been with you a long time?
Do you keep selling a product that doesn’t make money because it’s part of the lineup and more is better, right?
Do you do little tasks during the day that give you a dopamine hit or do you do what other people want even though none of it helps you achieve your goals?
In all these cases, you’re hurting yourself by not saying NO.
In future blogs I’ll expand on areas where it pays big time to say NO. Areas like strategy, sales, profitability, team performance, meetings and daily productivity.
For now though, I leave you with two important action items.
- Pick one area in your business where saying NO will benefit you.
- Then just say NO. Take a stand and see what happens.
Remember, NO is your friend. Have fun with it!
