What "No" Does and Doesn't Mean

November 14, 2013 by Impact

Seth Godin with a reminder to not take things too personal when you don’t get an answer you don’t like:

What “no” means
    I’m too busy
    I don’t trust you
    This isn’t on my list
    My boss won’t let me
    I’m afraid of moving this forward
    I’m not the person you think I am
    I don’t have the resources you think I do
    I’m not the kind of person that does things like this
    I don’t want to open the door to a long-term engagement
    Thinking about this will cause me to think about other things I just don’t want to deal with
What it doesn’t mean:
    I see the world the way you do, I’ve carefully considered every element of this proposal and understand it as well as you do and I hate it and I hate you.
(via Seth’s Blog)