Two buttons

At the beginning of my career, I hit that yes button all the time. Whenever an opportunity came along, I would smack that yes button and accept it.

My red no button was almost never used. In fact, I often wondered if I ever would hit that no button.

The further I got in my career, the less time I had. I was also much more confident in my career path, my ability, and the types of stories I wanted to tell.

The older I got, the more I smacked that no button, until I was almost never hitting the yes button anymore, because saying yes meant saying no to something I might love even more.

I started to think of saying yes as a gift, and I wasn’t able to give it to everybody and still keep my quality high enough.

If I gave it to everyone, I would eventually be bankrupt. Either that or my gifts would be horrible across the board. If I gave yeses to everybody, I would have to shop at the dollar store to get enough gifts, instead of getting awesome gifts for just a few people.

I didn’t want to give crappy presents anymore. I spent years giving presents to everybody until I just couldn’t do it anymore. Yes, sometimes you have no choice but to say yes. Sometimes you need the money, or the exposure, or the experience. But over time, hopefully, you will have the ability to say no, and be able to use your yeses like a gift.

Now, when I say yes, I can give the best of myself. I can go all in, and I know I’m going to dive in 100%.