Saying “NO” is a huge part of success yet most people don’t know this absolute axiom.
For both your personal and business life, one cannot say “YES” to every request. “Hey, can you watch the kids for me” or “hey, can you drive me to downtown L.A. to pick up my laundry” and stuff like that…. can be success killers.
Why? Opportunity Cost!
The cost of you traveling to L.A. for a 3 hour trip as a favor for a friend is the cost of you not taking care of your business. When we equate our time to money, we can compare the apples to apples.
For example, if your time is worth $ 100 per hour, then the cost of that travel to L.A. would be $ 300 ($ 100 x 3 hours) along with the gas and wear and tear on your car. If you have a car payment as well, you could also figure that cost into this equation as well. So your actual cost could be about $ 400 for that trip.
The costs go much higher if you’re actually building a business. One word “equity”.
Each time we fail to build our business, we lose equity and that could be very costly…maybe in the thousands of dollars if not millions. It’s no joke. It’s costly folks! This explains why business people can be thought of as so callous and cold hearted.
It’s true, some are so predatory that they really don’t care about others OR it just might be a smart responsible case of a leader making intelligent business decisions that make cents. In my case, it’s the latter…. for others who knows right? I believe most care and are really aiming to do a great job. So be smart, caring and responsible and make smart decisions.
In the case of the L.A. trip, we can ask ourselves “Is spending $ 400 of my time to help a friend worth it”. Sometimes it’s totally worth it. And sometimes it’s not in which case we have to say “NO” because it’ does NOT meet our mission.
And sometimes, if we feel like we want to help but simply find it too costly, it may be more efficient and less expensive to call in UBER and pay them to take our friend.
It’s just a matter of making smart choices and understanding the costs.
In my case, I often pay for family to take the bus from the airport to my house because the costs are so high for my time. I mean, when I get on the road for hours and hours my time and money equation is a business killer. I have to protect it and make smart decisions.
And sometimes, I just thank them for the request and politely with great care, empathy, and civility say “no” and even offer other options to better help them.
Ok, so learn to say “NO”. It’s a major part of business success.
Johnny Punish is the founder of the Veterans Today Network. He is also a writer, global citizen activist, visionary, musician, artist, entertainer, businessman, investor, life coach, and syndicated columnist.
Punish was educated at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (1980-81) and California State University Fullerton (1981-1984) with studies in accounting and business. He has over 100 original songs registered with ASCAP. His music is promoted worldwide and played on all digital networks and net radio.
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