The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.
— Warren Buffett
For more than 80% of my career, I was a "Yes" man! I though saying "Yes" was the way to make things better.
New feature request? Yes. Late-night bug hunt? Yes. Helping with a "quick" five-minute task that actually takes three hours? Yes. I was the human version of an Allow-All firewall rule.
But here’s the thing about saying "Yes" to everything: you eventually run out of "You". You become a collection of other's priorities.
From then on, I started practicing the No ⭐! And honestly? It feels like heaven.
The "Focus" Tax 🧘♂️
Every "Yes" is a hidden "No" to something else. When I say "Yes" to a meeting that could have been an email, I’m saying "No" to the deep focus I need to solve a complex architectural problem. I’m saying "No" to the flow state. By saying "No" more often, I’m finally giving my best work the "Yes" it deserves.
The Hype-Train Departure 🏎️💨
The tech industry is a revolving door of "The Next Big Thing". Every week, there’s a new library that promises to solve all our problems. I used to feel guilty for not knowing every new tool. Now, when the Hype Train pulls into the station, I just stand on the platform and wave as it passes by.
- "No, we don't need a Vector DB for some 1000 rows of data".
- "No, we don't need to rewrite our backend in the language of the month".
Heaven is realizing that Postgres and a good night's sleep are more powerful than any 0.1.0 versioned framework.
The "Hero" Retirement 🦸♂️🚫
I used to love being the "Hero" who saved the day at 2 AM. Then I realized that heroes are usually just symptoms of a broken process. I started saying "No" to the heroics and "Yes" to better systems and clean, useful processes. When you stop being the safety net, you finally have the time to build a floor that doesn't break.
The Result? ☁️
My calendar has white space. My coffee actually stays hot. And most importantly, when I do say "Yes", I mean it. My "Yes" has weight again because it’s no longer the default — it’s an impactful, and productive choice.
Top comments (3)
Yes!
The most expensive resource in development isn't compute power, it's focus
Saying 'No' isn't being negative; it is protecting the ROI of your output. If you say yes to everything, you dilute the quality of the few things that actually matter.
Prioritization is a hard skill, not a soft skill and I think a lot of us have been the yes man for a while and maybe to long to come to a point were no had to be the default answer.
That’s how you can save time and energy and FOCUS on quality.
Absolutely Agreed! In fact, Saying 'No' is the secret sauce in increasing ROI since it will direct focus to only on whats important.