I know that I have written about this in the past, but I felt I had to return to the subject.

Some weeks ago, I met three people in the Jerusalem area, who turned round to me, politely yet firmly, and “No, I do not do that”.

Left hanging in that manner, it sounds as if I had made an indecent proposition. Actually, as their business coach, what I was trying to do was to encourage each of my clients to  carry out a task, which they had believed is at the wrong end of their list of core competences. So, unsurprisingly, my request was met with heaps of negativity.

And then the fun started.

For each client, I immediately began to focus on a different issue challenging their organisations. Seemingly, these problems were more appealing to the individual. This was the stuff they loved working on, and I knew that. The smiles returned. However, what I did not tell them was that they would have to use the same skills to resolve what was in front of them, as with the previous task.

A couple of weeks went past, and I met up with them all again. Each one was happy and each one appreciated the trap I had set. More importantly, they were not upset when I called them ‘liars’, and that I was not prepared to accept such unnecessary resistance in the future.

It is easy for all of us to say ‘no’. Nobody explains this better than “Nick Vujicic, the 32-year-old president of motivational speech marketer Attitude is Altitude,” ………….who was born without arms or legs. When it comes down to it, what many of us are afraid of is failure. It sounds so bad, if not humiliating.

As Vujicic explains, failure is often the start of the road towards success. If only, the previous generation had understood that 30 years ago! How much more would many of us be accomplishing today?