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A Technique for Deciding When to Say No
Instead of trying to do everything, figure out what deserves your time and energy
In a culture that tends toward the myth of no limits, acknowledging that we can’t do everything seems restrictive. Our industrial naïveté proudly proclaims that we have unlimited time, unlimited resources, and unlimited capacity. Our enlightened progress that emerged in modernism has told us that supply is infinite, demand is infinite, and we, too, are infinite.
The desire to escape death seems to have produced a culture that mythologically posits immortality.
But those who are honest about death, who have the humility to understand and to embrace our finitude, are those who just might live rightly in the world as it actually is.
Essentially, you can’t do everything—so what should you do? What are you going to focus on?
Despite our desire to be like gods, we might do better if we accept reality—that we have limits, that we can’t do everything, and, therefore, that we have to make decisions about how we are going to fill the only hands we have. Coming to terms with our own limitations can be difficult, but there are some concepts and techniques that can help us decide when to say “yes” and when to say “no.”
The law of two-thirds
In the world of business, the law of two-thirds offers criteria for decisions about what will define a product or organization. Essentially, you can’t do everything so what should you do? What are you going to focus on?
This concept, when approached with honesty about our limitedness, identifies three primary elements that are instrumental in the success of a business:
- Quality
- Speed
- Price
In determining what to say ‘yes’ to, you’ve also decided what to say ‘no’ to.
You must consider all three, but you can only choose two. For example, a restaurant wants to have quality and it wants to be fast? Then it is going to be more expensive. A business desires low prices, but also wants to maintain quality? Speed is going to be reduced. You…
