I am Sorry, but it’s a NO.

Many, many years ago, I was obsessed with kungfu movies. I actually saved my money to buy most of Jet Li’s Chinese movies. And in one of those movies, there was this particular phrase uttered by Jet Li to his son (of course in Cantonese) that I really liked. The phrase actually stays with me until now. Roughly translated, it basically says – ‘There is no need to explain when no one believes the explanation.’ I strongly believe in this. Normally, if I find that explaining is a waste of time and does not provide me any good in the end, I just don’t bother to do it. But last week, I failed to uphold this principal of mine. I was given a task that I knew I would not be able to do well. I was given a limited time to complete it with very minimal information on how to go about doing it. On top of that, it was not even in the area of my expertise. Against my better judgment, I did it anyway. But when I got bombarded for not being able to meet the management’s expectations, I felt compelled to defend myself..mainly because I didn’t like the negative perception that came with the blame. Theoretically, a delegation of work should be accompanied with the transfer of responsibility and accountability. However, lack of information would also hinder the effectiveness of the delegation. It was like you being given a car and a set of keys to drive without the direction of where to go. Still, those who really know me would expect me to find just the right time to interject my argument…and I will do it only once. On that particular day also, I got a very good advice from somebody..’You should learn to say NO.’ Thank you. I will always remember that….


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