What happens when your boss comes to you and ask you if you can finish this -superbig project- in 10 days?

You might be tempted to say yes, to please the boss even though you know it’s impossible and it’ll require you to do some extra work.

What would happen then is that one day your boss might come for _another_ job on the same level, and another one, and another one.

That lie will build up until it won’t be sustainable. You’ll be overwhelmed unless you change something in the equation.

This is a common situation if you think about marketing and selling. We’re used to think that to sell you have to lie. To sell things you can’t have because it’s more important to get the client and then “who cares”. Right?

It’s a short term benefit, but not a long term strategy. 
It can’t be a long term strategy because it’s not sustainable. What’s the right answer then if your boss comes over with such complex questions?

Take time. 
Say “Give me 30 minutes to think about it”.
Or maybe it a day, one week, whatever seems enough to get a hold of what you need.
You might not get a perfect answer, but at least you will know that your answer is based on actual information and not because you want to be nice to the boss.

After all it all boils down to say more No’s in life. 
It’s like when your friend come over and tells you a great idea, would you want to partecipate in it?
If you say yes to all your friends you would probably end up doing nothing and be overwhelmed again.

As you see this applies to each part of life.
We have _finite_ time, mind and resources.
Our goal is to make our best with what we have and play for the long run, not the short run.

I know, the short term benefit is appealing, but the long term strategy always outshine any short term benefit as long as you’re going for it.

Think about razors. When they were first invented nobody would ever thought that the money wouldn’t have come from selling the razor. In fact, you could even sell the razor for a lower price because what would be the n°1 moneymaker would be razor blades.

Razor blades, yes, because you would pay them each month, each year, forever.
With one razor you would have a recurring revenue that would last forever. That’s a long term strategy.

But if you played it short term maybe you would have sold the razor at a higher price, lowering the adoption and thus losing the race.

To get that though you have to learn to say no and yes to the right things, taking into account what’s most precious: Your time.