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Never Say “No” Twice If You Mean It
“No” is a complete sentence. It doesn’t have to be backed up with all these explanatory, supplementary sentences if it’s “no” that you really mean to say and to stick to.
“Never say no twice if you mean it.”
-Nassim Taleb, “The Bed of Procrustes”
You don’t have to explain yourself once you’ve said no, and if you keep on saying it, it just weakens the force of that initial statement. Justifications, expansions, apologies, backtracking, and compromising…people take these as signals that you are open to negotiating your position. Don’t be. Say no, mean it, and end the discussion there.
Naturally, there’s something to be said for flexibility, but many people will mistake your flexibility with weakness and unsureness. That’s Taleb’s point in his endlessly fascinating book, The Bed of Procrustes.
It’s a collection of 500+ aphorisms that are like lightning bolts to your prefrontal cortex, challenging you to reconsider your received opinions about life, love, money, religion, and everything else that we can’t stop thinking about.
