Grant Diggles

3 simple rules to manage your time and promote business success. PART 1

// September 20th, 2009 // Business

RULE #1: Use the power of “NO”

Several years ago, I was out to dinner with a client. We had a longstanding business relationship and had recently began building a more personal one based on common interests and activities. We both knew that we were unable to dine together without mixing business and personal together that night; and my client understood that I had a small agenda for our get together.

As the evening wained on I began to look for gaps in the conversation to change the subject and begin my proposal. My client, as intuitive as he was, sensed the earnest in my voice and stopped me. ”Before you get to far into the business side of our conversation, I must warn you of one thing”, he said “the answer is no, unless you can convince me otherwise.”

Admittedly, I was a little taken back by his comment as I wasn’t expecting such a hard fast answer even before hearing what my proposal was. I carried on however, and by the end of the night his answered never changed. It was still “no”.

I don’t tell this story to focus on my failure in “selling” my client or how to build a better selling strategy in the future, but rather, to bring attention to a valuable lesson I learned that night about saying “no”. Indeed, if my client would have said “yes” simply because he could, or because he thought he should for the sake of our friendship, I in my youth, would have wasted a large amount of both of our time and money in an idea that eventually fell to the wayside.

Many times in business, and in our personal lives, we say “yes” to too many things. The motivation for doing so is different for everyone; fear of looking bad or appearing mean, a desire to be liked or appreciated, a drive to prove you can do anything, etc. At the end of the day, it seems easier to say “yes” than it is to say “no” and we find we are over-extended, over-worked and exhausted, in part, because we didn’t get any of the things we wanted done, done.

If you value your time at the office, at home or wherever you are, take the advice of my long-time friend the next time someone has a great idea to add to your plate:

“THE ANSWER IS NO UNLESS YOU CAN CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE”

Rule # 2 – Coming soon…

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite