Saying “No”

CreativeMornings was started by my friend and studiomate Tina Roth-Eisenberg is one of the best speaker series around, bringing in wonderfully insightful people to share their stories over a hot cup of coffee among local creative folk. What started out as a local NY endeavor has since blossomed into a global movement with nearly 40 chapters all over the world.

I had the pleasure of speaking alongside Simon Collison for the New York chapter last month as part of the Kickstarter benefit to create an archive of every video from every speaker from every chapter.

I spoke on a topic that’s become very near and dear to my heart in the past few years: saying “no”. It might be saying no to a project or job, or even something that you think you can’t say no to, but finding the strength to set your own priorities for what you want is one of the most crucial things you can do in life. Saying no used to make me uncomfortable, and despite making many mistakes on my way there, I’ve learned to feel good about saying it. The talk is just a short 20 minutes, but sums up most everything I’ve learned about the topic in all my years working and living.

Not to be left out, Simon gave a heartfelt talk about striving to feel fulfilled as a designer amidst the speed of career and life. In Simon’s words:

My own talk was a short, sharp and very honest fifteen minutes about being a web designer, managing the weight of learning and noise, turning that noise into signals, communicating with our cousins in print, and more besides.

Thanks to the efforts of Tina, her cadre of helpers, and chapter organizers, CreativeMornings consistently serves as a creative pep talk for people everywhere. I’m so happy that we’ll all have access to an archive of everything soon. Until then, many videos are already available on Vimeo across the chapters.

And I want to say thanks to everyone who helped back the Kickstarter project, especially those of you who came out early to hear Simon and me speak in New York.