My daughter and I were doing our first set of college visits in the South recently which ended with a visit to Ole Miss in Oxford, MS. It looked as though about 75 other students were there along with their parents to take the campus tour and hear admissions information from the staff. We all crammed into one of the chapels there on campus as the enthusiastic counselor gave us an overview of the school, the rich history, and finally the admissions requirements. He told all of us the school never sends a letter telling a student they didn’t get in. In his words the answer is always:
Not yet.
In other words, a student won’t be told no, just reminded of what they still need to send in (transcripts, etc.) or do (get a higher ACT score). I thought it was a pretty nice way of building hope.
All of us have been told no more often than yes. For some, no means the end of the journey and the dream. For others, it’s a driver to get success. My kids deal with the word differently too. One of my sons and one of my daughters take no at face value. The other son and daughter seem to look at no as a suggestion. Neither is right or wrong, just different.
For some things, no means no. If my granddaughter wants to pet a copperhead snake, the answer is no. It won’t be not yet. You will NEVER pet a copperhead snake. On the other hand, if she says she wants to drive, the answer is not yet. She won’t be able to drive at age 2, but when she turns 16, then absolutely yes. It’s not no, it’s just not yet.
When I left the Navy, I was told no several times for certain jobs and certain gigs. I always viewed it as not yet. I knew what I wanted to accomplish in building a business and realized that it would happen, but just not that moment. Every no simply meant not yet. It was a prompter to learn new skills, create new content, and shift the way I was marketing.
What about you? When you hear the word no, and there’s no logical reason why, do you get discouraged and give up? This week, think about it differently. When you hear no, tell yourself not yet, then get busy learning and doing what you need to transform the not yet into that magical word YES!