{"id":3087,"date":"2019-08-05T08:38:10","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T08:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T06:32:53","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T06:32:53","slug":"for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment","title":{"rendered":"For me, saying no is an accomplishment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I used to brag about talks I gave; now I brag about talks I turned down.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I always had a hard time saying NO. Every time I did, it felt like a missed opportunity. Also, it is a somewhat rude action of rejecting an offering to engage, collaborate, or help, and it always left me feeling guilty and regretful. I wish I had infinite time so I could say yes to all the cool opportunities I get, but my time is most definitely not unlimited. <b>So, I found a way to perceive my \u201cNOs\u201d as accomplishments. <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I started to write down all the cool things I rejected into a single file. My NO-file has items like: \u201cSaid no to a free trip to give a talk in India,\u201d \u201cSaid no to being an editor of a journal,\u201d \u201cSaid no to reviewing a paper written by a top scholar,\u201d etc. I am at 4 pages now and adding to the list daily. Most importantly, I no longer feel regret about missed opportunities. My \u201cNOs\u201d are contributing to my growing collection of prestigious turndowns and I am free to say YES to things that really matter. I try to get at least a dozen \u201cNOs\u201d for every \u201cYES.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><i>Dr. Roman Yampolskiy (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/romanyam\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\">@romanyam<\/a>) is an Associate Professor at the Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville. This story was published on March 31, 2019, on Dr. Yampolskiy\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@romanyam\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\">Medium blog<\/a> (available<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@romanyam\/saying-no-as-an-accomplishment-792a8884a5a\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\"> here<\/a>), and has been republished here with his permission.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I used to brag about talks I gave; now I brag about talks I turned down. I always had a hard time saying NO. Every time I did, it felt like a missed opportunity. Also, it is a somewhat rude action of rejecting an offering to engage, collaborate, or help, and it always left me [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1597,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2414],"tags":[2454,2671],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-3087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-researcher-stories","tag-researcher-stories","tag-stories-of-success"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>For me, saying no is an accomplishment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dr. Roman Yampolskiy is an Associate Professor at the Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville. Here, he talks about how he started viewing saying no to some opportunities as an accomplishment.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"For me, saying no is an accomplishment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Roman Yampolskiy is an Associate Professor at the Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville. Here, he talks about how he started viewing saying no to some opportunities as an accomplishment.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Editage Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-08-05T08:38:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-15T06:32:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/For-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment-Resized.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"656\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Roman Yampolskiy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Roman Yampolskiy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Roman Yampolskiy\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/f600bcd3494f78d20a93e7b534252d78\"},\"headline\":\"For me, saying no is an accomplishment\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-05T08:38:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-15T06:32:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment\"},\"wordCount\":251,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Researcher Stories\",\"Stories of Success\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Researchers and Their Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment\",\"name\":\"For me, saying no is an accomplishment\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-05T08:38:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-15T06:32:53+00:00\",\"description\":\"Dr. Roman Yampolskiy is an Associate Professor at the Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville. Here, he talks about how he started viewing saying no to some opportunities as an accomplishment.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"width\":656,\"height\":336},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"For me, saying no is an accomplishment\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\",\"name\":\"Editage Insights\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Editage Insights\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":324,\"caption\":\"Editage Insights\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Editage\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/f600bcd3494f78d20a93e7b534252d78\",\"name\":\"Roman Yampolskiy\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/988350e3b1957cd980f1a5c7c4e9931a2bd7ab975b792021af8cbbac1fd3c2b4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/988350e3b1957cd980f1a5c7c4e9931a2bd7ab975b792021af8cbbac1fd3c2b4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Roman Yampolskiy\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/roman-yampolskiy\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"For me, saying no is an accomplishment","description":"Dr. Roman Yampolskiy is an Associate Professor at the Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville. Here, he talks about how he started viewing saying no to some opportunities as an accomplishment.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"For me, saying no is an accomplishment","og_description":"Dr. Roman Yampolskiy is an Associate Professor at the Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville. Here, he talks about how he started viewing saying no to some opportunities as an accomplishment.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment","og_site_name":"Editage Insights","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage","article_published_time":"2019-08-05T08:38:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-01-15T06:32:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":656,"height":394,"url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/For-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment-Resized.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Roman Yampolskiy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Editage","twitter_site":"@Editage","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Roman Yampolskiy","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment"},"author":{"name":"Roman Yampolskiy","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/f600bcd3494f78d20a93e7b534252d78"},"headline":"For me, saying no is an accomplishment","datePublished":"2019-08-05T08:38:10+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-15T06:32:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment"},"wordCount":251,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","keywords":["Researcher Stories","Stories of Success"],"articleSection":["Researchers and Their Stories"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment","name":"For me, saying no is an accomplishment","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","datePublished":"2019-08-05T08:38:10+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-15T06:32:53+00:00","description":"Dr. Roman Yampolskiy is an Associate Professor at the Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville. Here, he talks about how he started viewing saying no to some opportunities as an accomplishment.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","width":656,"height":336},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/for-me-saying-no-is-an-accomplishment#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"For me, saying no is an accomplishment"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/","name":"Editage Insights","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization","name":"Editage Insights","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp","width":2560,"height":324,"caption":"Editage Insights"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage","https:\/\/x.com\/Editage"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/f600bcd3494f78d20a93e7b534252d78","name":"Roman Yampolskiy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/988350e3b1957cd980f1a5c7c4e9931a2bd7ab975b792021af8cbbac1fd3c2b4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/988350e3b1957cd980f1a5c7c4e9931a2bd7ab975b792021af8cbbac1fd3c2b4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Roman Yampolskiy"},"url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/roman-yampolskiy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1597"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3087"},{"taxonomy":"new_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/new_categories?post=3087"},{"taxonomy":"new_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/new_tags?post=3087"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=3087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}