The Decision to Say No

Sometimes saying no is really saying yes to something you cannot see yet.

Aldo Belkouar has spent more than twenty years moving between journalism, photography, art direction and entrepreneurship, working across five continents.

It is not exactly a linear career. But perhaps that is the point.

In our conversation, Aldo describes a decision that could easily have made it more linear.

After six years freelancing for a major international beauty company in New York, he was offered a permanent position.

Good salary. Interesting responsibilities. Recognition. Security.

He said no.

Not because he had a better offer.

He had nothing.

What he did have was a conviction: accepting the job would mean giving up the freedom around which he had built his professional life.

“Saying no to that job was saying yes to so many other opportunities.”

Except those opportunities did not exist yet.

For eight months, nothing happened.

Aldo calls that period the limbo.

And perhaps this is where the decision becomes interesting.

We like decisions to be validated by their outcomes. Say no to the wrong thing, something better appears, and suddenly the decision looks courageous.

But what about the period before the better thing appears?

Aldo doubted.

He did not regret.

There is an important difference.

Doubt asks whether things will work out.

Regret asks whether we should have made the decision at all.

Perhaps one of the hardest parts of an important decision is learning not to confuse the two.

The decision behind the decision

Looking back, Aldo says he had a guideline for his life and was not prepared to compromise it.

That may have been the real decision.

Not whether to accept a job.

But what he was — and was not — willing to trade for success.

We often think good decisions are about knowing what we want.

Sometimes they are about knowing what we refuse to give up.

Even when we cannot yet see what comes next.

The full conversation

The Decision to Say No — with Aldo Belkouar
The Decision Behind the Decision — Conversations with Decision-Makers. The Podcast by Rosa Bellei

YouTube : [EMBED VIDEO HERE]