Always Say Yes!

Last week, I was part of an International Womens’ Day conference in Europe. One of the guest speakers was Kristin Kragseth, the CEO of Var Energi. In a speech that lasted almost 40 minutes, she made a litany of profound, and honestly, didactic points. However, the big takeaway for me was this ‘when someone asks you if you could do a task, or offers you an opportunity, always say yes. You might have constrains and limitations, but first say yes before your buts. When someone believes in you, don’t be the one to put limitations on yourself.’

Those words pierced me so hard, I knew instantly that I was going to make a blog post out of it. Personally, this has been my story for the most part. I have said ‘Yes’ to opportunities I felt ill prepared for at the time. I have said ‘Yes’ to leadership positions I knew next to nothing about at the time I was being offered. But now I look back in hindsight, I can say in all good conscience that those ‘Yes’ have made a huge difference.

The caveat though is that if it is an opportunity you don’t want for personal reasons, or if it is one that makes you compromise on your core values, then it is fine to say ‘No.’ The focus here is when there is a genuine opportunity for growth at work, school, business, church, whatever.

The point is this – before someone offers you an opportunity, they must have seen something in you that convinces them that you are good enough to be given a chance. Certainly, no one is the finished article as at the time of being offered a chance. That feeling of unease and sense of inadequacy is only normal and comes with the terrain. I have always believed that there is hardly any job that is rocket science except maybe rocket science itself. This is to say that we can master almost anything, it just needs time and a bit of sheer application.

Many have passed up fantastic opportunities at different times in life because they thought of themselves as being ‘not good enough’, but to never try is to never fully know. Little wonder Richard Branson once said, ‘If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!’ The trick is to always say yes. Your ‘yes’ can make all the difference.