Go For No

It is fairly safe to say that most of us have a problematic relationship with the word “no.” Maybe when we were little we could shrug it off if we were denied a cookie before dinner time. But eventually we learn to fear “no,” and become programmed to avoid the situations where we think we will encounter it. Imagine if you were able to reprogram yourself so that every time you heard the word “no” you actually became stronger and more resilient. Eventually you’d learn that it’s OK – desirable even – to “go for no.”

If you saw the 1992 movie A League of their Own, a fictional account of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League of the 1940s, you may remember a quote by coach Jimmy Dugan when his star player Dottie Hinson is ready to quit the team because of how hard it is to be a professional baseball player. Dugan says, “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard … is what makes it great.”

Well, the same is true of sales. It’s hard. And to get to yes, you have to go for no, as Richard Fenton explains in his book Go for No. In other words, all those no’s are really just the stepping stones to yes. “Yes” is easy to have a relationship with. It’s our relationship with “no” that we have to change.

We’re afraid of hearing “no,” and we have to understand why we have that fear and learn to respond to it. Anyone in sales, any artist, any writer, any entrepreneur must learn that “no” has value. Every “no” gets you one step closer to “yes.” Therefore we have to learn to re-program our thoughts about the word. In its professional context “no” isn’t personal, and learning to deal with it is how you get to your destination, which is “yes.”

If you ask top sellers how often they had to hear “no” in order to succeed (and Richard Fenton does just this in the Go for No movie) you realize that success depends on persistence and tenacity, which depends on renegotiating your relationship with the word “no.” To succeed you must also understand that you can fail without being a failure.

Learning to deal with rejection takes courage, but the great news is that you already have courage inside you. You know how you go to the gym and work your muscles and they become stronger? Courage is the same way: the more you use it the stronger it gets, and that’s the key to dealing with no. Eventually you can come to see “yes” as the destination, and the “no’s” as signposts along the way to get there.

Once you relearn your relationship with “no” and learn to actually “go for no,” then nothing can stop you from achieving your goals. You don’t have to be afraid of this emotionally loaded two-letter word, and once you believe that and exercise your courage every time you hear “no,” you’ll realize that when you go for no, you are actually empowering yourself to achieve things you never thought you could!

Author Bio: Please visit Personal Development Company Personal Development Company if you would like to learn more about Go For No! by Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz and other Go For No! products

Category: Marketing
Keywords: go for no, richard fenton, andrea waltz