What Meaning Do You Make of No?
In his book, 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself: Change Your Life Forever, Steve Chandler says the following: “Don’t take no for an answer. Take it for a question. Make the word no mean this question: “Can’t you be more creative than that?”
There are many meanings we can make of no. It can mean, “This path is closed to me” or “I’m not good enough” or “I guess I’m not meant to do this.” But there are other ways to interpret no as well.
Steve Chandler received a no when he was applying for a sports writing position. Instead of giving up, he chose to ask himself: “Can’t you be more creative than that?” He asked the interviewer why they declined to hire him and they responded that it was due to his total lack of experience as a sports writer. Steve pressed further and asked why no experience was a problem for them. The interviewer responded that he wanted to be confident in a person’s ability to write sports columns before hiring him. Again, Steve could have given up, especially because he didn’t have a long string of articles to point to, but instead, he got creative.
For the next few weeks, he wrote letters to the paper, commenting on major sporting events and expressing his continued interest in the position. This got their attention. After a few weeks, the paper called him in for a second interview and he got the job.
It can be easy to relate to no with a closed posture, assuming that there is only one interpretation. My experience is that adopting a posture of curiosity almost always leads to more learning and increased performance, whether we end up converting the no to a yes or not. No can be very fruitful if we are willing to bring our creativity to bear upon it.
This week, I invite you to get curious about the no’s in your life.
In what situations have you received a no before? Was your response open or closed? What are the meanings that you made of that no? How might things have been different for you if you were more creative?
In what situations do you expect to receive a no in the future? What would it look like for you to be committed to a posture of creativity in the face of this future no?
How might your life change if you grew 10% in your ability to “take no for a question”?
God Bless,
Dan
