Learn to say "NO"

‘N’ for No and ‘N’ for Negative. This is what we have been fed with since childhood. “Never say Never”, “Can’t, Won’t etc. shouldn’t be in your dictionary”, sounds good eh? Well, everything written above is really motivating, but is ‘No’ really a word that’s negative? The answer lies in the example given.

Gautama is a dedicated worker of a company who finishes all his work on time and gives great productivity in the project. One day his manager comes to him and assigns him a job of which Gautama knows nothing about. In his head Gautama knows he cannot do it and will be very difficult for him to do it. But he knows “Answer AFFIRMATIVELY in the company rule” so he instantly tells the manager “yes Anil, I will do this”.  Slowly Gautama begins work and tries to find out about the job assigned to him. After trying very hard for a week Gautama still isn’t able to do an in-depth analysis of the job assigned. Moreover, slowly and steadily a tension was building in his head as to what answer will he give to his manager? What will the team think about him? What if he fails in front of his manager and their bosses? All these questions start circling Gautama. Finally the day comes. The day of the deadline. Whatever little Gautama understood he explained in the best possible way he could. But it wasn’t enough to please the bosses who gave a bad review about his work. A sincere, dedicated man that Gautama failed for the first time. This failure got onto him and took a toll of his normal work. His productivity decreased day by day. He started being scared by his team members, by his managers. And all this finally led to Gautama being served a three month notice to find a new job. A dedicated worker of the company and now within a month he does not matter anymore to the company.

The question his could things have changed. Could things have been better for Gautama? The answer is yes!!  Surprisingly the answer you will read will be totally against what you have learnt till date.

Had Gautama clearly stated that ‘NO’ he has no knowledge about the job and would be better if someone else with more knowledge could do the job, his life would have turned completely to what it is today? Yes the manager would have thought something and might feel bad as you are declining the work he has decided to give to you. But given the sincerity and productivity Gautama had in the team it would have been a matter of few days when the manager would again pat his back. Yeah, Gautama could turn the tables even after he messed up the job, quite possible isn’t it? True, But doing something when your morale and self-esteem is touching the earth’s core, it’s a daunting task on its own.

        Thus to see carefully, ‘No’ isn’t a negative word, in fact, it is an affirmative word when used in the correct way. Yeah, the above rule doesn’t apply on Mom’s, Girlfriend’s and wives and use them only at your own risk!!