Learn to say "no"

Often one of the most difficult, but important, things to say is "no". I've learnt this the hard way. As a junior developer, in my first job, I was so eager to impress that I said "yes" to most requests. Big mistake. Very soon I discovered that I didn't have enough time to do what I'd committed to and often didn't have the skills to do it either. Now it's not always easy saying "no". I used to worry that I was letting people down and that they would think I was being awkward. In the end though, I let them down so much more by not delivering on time or sometimes by not delivering at all.

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