The world is so arranged that someone always needs something from you. For example, you are offered to speak at a super event, but they forget that half an hour of performance requires 2-3 days of preparation, and they painfully perceive your refusal. Say «no», nothing will happen. And also, if you are connected with products and their creation, then there are always a lot of people around you who consider their ideas excellent and want their immediate implementation. Tell them no, good ideas are immortal. If you have a company, then the worst temptation is to try to be good for everyone, to please everyone. Look at the software and hardware products surrounding you. Laptops have tons of ports and slots that you never use, flashing lights that don't display anything. And some body kits are constantly being introduced into the programs. Look at the same Outlook or Word and hundreds of other products in which users use only 10% of the functionality. And why was the rest planned, implemented, designed and now dragged from version to version, generating incompatibilities and glitches? It's simple – someone didn't say «no» in time.
Below is a video of a short speech by Steve Jobs at WWDC in 1997. The video begins with the developer's question «So what about OpenDoc?» OpenDoc – apparently, the topic of the hobby of the questioner developer, who sincerely believes that it is worth doing and it is worth introducing into mass products. Jobs answered him "no" in his usual manner and added: "The trick is when you say "No". And the result of this focus is really great products, in which the result is much better than the sum of the terms."Steve says that when he returned to Apple, hundreds of engineering guys were engaged in the technologies they were interested in and pulled the company in hundreds of directions, which is why the company's shares began to cost $4 apiece. Today, thanks to the word "no" and focus, Apple is the most expensive public company in the world.
And what do you think about what you need to say «no» to gain focus in the direction of your movement?
