A Warm Yes Or A Hell Yes?

When an opportunity presents itself to you, how do you know whether to say YES or NO?

Last week, I was invited to attend an event put on by the Riviera Business Club, as a way to network and meet fellow business owners.

I have attended some of their events in the past, but over the last few years I haven't done much in-person networking. (That little thing called Covid got in the way, plus I got a bit lazy.)

I also wondered how fruitful it would be, given that 90% of my business is global, rather than local.

But, what criteria did I use to decide to go or not?
Is it just about business?

In about an hour, I am going to be leading a book circle with a group of leaders where we're going to explore this idea of "opportunity selection criteria" and how to know whether to say YES or NO to an opportunity.

It all comes from the work of Greg McKeown in his book Essentialism.

Before starting with Greg's work, though, we're going to roll back into a bit of Simon Sinek, and his book Find Your Why.

In partners, the members of the circle will share 3-4 stories from their past that seem to stick out the most. The listener will take notes and look for themes around values, and what seems to matter most to the storyteller. Clarifying questions will be asked, and answered, as appropriate.

When the first person is done storytelling, they'll swap places.

When all stories have been shared, themes have been uncovered, and through lines made, the members will then set about creating criteria for themselves.

First, they'll focus on the MINIMUM CRITERIA.

What must be in place for me to even consider saying YES to this opportunity?

Then, they'll focus on the IDEAL CRITERIA.

What would make this a HELL YES, rather than a WARM YES?

The purpose of this whole exercise is to make it more explicit when to say yes and when to say no.

We all know that time is finite and we only have 24 hours in a day.

As McKeown writes in his book:

"Sometimes you have to turn down the seemingly very good option and have faith that the perfect option will soon come along."

Do you have criteria for saying yes? What's an example?

P.S. I did go to the RBC event, but didn't use any explicit criteria to make the decision. Perhaps after today I will.

​Originally posted on LinkedIn with comments.

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