Twenty-five years ago I worked in the House of Commons, watching people who wanted things from other people who had the power to give them. It taught me more about persuasion than any marketing course ever has — and one thing in particular: the people who got what they wanted rarely asked for the most. They asked for the right thing, from the right person, at the right time.
I think about that a lot now, mostly when I’m turning work down. Founders assume a consultant’s job is to say yes — to the retainer, to the scope creep, to the six-month engagement that was actually a six-week problem. Mine mostly involves saying no. No, you don’t need a rebrand, you need a better sentence on your homepage. No, I’m not the right person for this — here’s who is. No, not yet, ask me again once you’ve fixed the thing that’s actually broken.
It’s not modesty. It’s that the work only survives if I only take it when it’s real.
