Say Yes!
Why the Famous Advice Telling you to Focus and say no is all Wrong
There is this standard piece of productivity advice out there telling you to “Say No” — to distractions, to people who try to pull you into their priorities and away from yours. The late great Steve Jobs famously said that “Focusing is about saying no”. Here’s one inspiring short video of him making the case for saying no:
We miss you, Steve! I hope you’re saying no to everyone in the great big tech company in the sky and making insanely great products for angels.
Another example? Entrepreneur and angel investor James Altucher wrote a whole book about saying no, which you should totally say *yes* to, and go buy and read. 😉
Seriously, the case for saying no is pretty well made. By saying no to distractions and other people’s agendas you make yourself more productive. You stand a better chance of achieving greatness by dedicating yourself to the few priorities that really matter.
I’d love to go along with the Say No crowd but I can’t, because my life experience has been that overall you’re better off saying yes.
I’ve benefited so much in my career from saying yes when people ask for help. Not as a quid pro quo mind you — just expending time and energy to help and build relationships. In my experience, it comes back to you with interest. So for example, let’s say that like me you’re an experienced Product Manager. One day, you get asked by a fresh college grad how to break into PM. It competes with the time you want to spend on shipping your next roadmap. But you should say yes anyway for the following reasons:
- She might be in a position to pay you back one day with some favor
- You might be impressed and want to hire her
- She might be impressed enough to hire you one day into her rocketship startup.
- It’s just good karma.
Another example? You work in a big corp and are always busy. Some program manager from a central team reaches out to invite you to be on a panel that will help inform the HR team on designing the next set of benefits the company wants to role out. It will take some hours here and there. It will distract you from the project you hope will help you win your next promotion. Do you do it? You should do it. Here are a few reasons why:
- You’ll meet new people from other areas of the company and expand your internal network.
- You’ll get to have an impact by making the company’s set of benefits better and more relevant to people in your job family, life situation, and geographical location. This will in turn help you and others hire better people.
- It will give you a chance to step away from the day to day work and get a different perspective. The experience might look irrelevant now but will come in handy a few years down the road when you want to be a co-founder and CEO of your own startup.
I hope you get the picture. There are many other examples — opportunities to speak in a conference not directly linked to your current work. Maybe you’re asked to join a non-profit board. Maybe a startup in your field of expertise wants to bounce ideas. etc. etc.
Of course, you should not be a push-over and you should not go on wild goose chases and hopeless causes. But within these guard rails — if someone asks you for help at work or in your professional network— Take my advice and say ‘Yes’!
Give yourself a chance to open up a surprising door. It may delay you from inventing the iPhone or it may not. One thing’s for sure — life will be more interesting that way and you’ll open up more doors for yourselves and others.
