The Mastery of Good Luck by Mitch Horowitz

Author:Mitch Horowitz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: G&D Media
Published: 2019-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Rule

EIGHT

“No” Is Not Always Final

A businessman and entrepreneur who I greatly admire was trying to reach out to a colleague to get together. But the colleague kept ignoring him or putting him off. Finally, they did get together—and enjoyed each other’s company. My friend asked his once-hesitant companion why he had initially resisted meeting.

“Well,” the other man said, “you’re someone who has a reputation of not taking no for an answer.” In other words, he considered my friend pushy and wasn’t sure he wanted to be around him.

My friend responded pensively: “You’re right. I don’t take no for an answer. But it’s because conditions can change, and then the answer changes.”

Always remember this: Conditions can change, and then the answer changes.

This doesn’t mean being a pest or badgering people. That will get you nowhere. It means keeping open the lines of communication and keeping relationships sound so that you can always re-approach someone. The motivational writer and essayist Elbert Hubbard wrote in his “Credo” in 1912: “I believe that when I part with you I must do it in such a way that when you see me again you will be glad—and so will I.”

Don’t undervalue such a sentiment. Conditions in business, and other facets of life, change or reverse all the time. This is natural law. If you have the capacity to re-approach people, and the presence of mind to do so, you can take advantage of these natural changes. So long as you’ve maintained positive relations, you should never feel hesitant or embarrassed about knocking on someone’s door a second, third, or even fourth time. A record company executive once told me: “Be a pest, but be a nice pest.”

I’ve personally gotten into ruts with assignment editors at magazines and newspapers only to find that after I went away for a time and then returned they became newly receptive to my pitches, possibly because of a change in the news cycle or some intangible factor that made my ideas more relevant.

I know a highly successful movie producer who has this talent for not taking no. He is unerringly friendly to nearly everyone. He offends no one and knows when to take a temporary leave. Hence, he is always ready to revisit plans, pitches, and opportunities.

When conditions shift in your favor, and someone replaces a no with a yes, accept your good luck gladly—and never remind someone of his previous refusals. You alone will know the mechanics behind the happy reversal.

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