100 Business Days Out: Day 13 - Progressive No's

I have been helping a buddy of mine who is in the last throws of negotiations for a new job. He really wants it and he is working hard to make everything work for him and the new company so he can take the position and feel good about it. He is working through a set of progressive yeses to get the new gig. It’s an interesting juxtaposition as I counsel him to get to yes while I spend three or four calls a day now saying “no” and also trying to feel good about it. The market is hot for start-up CEOs who have some real experience behind them. Just on this 13th business day of being out, I received four calls about positions that at an earlier time would have been great jobs to go explore and talk about. But on this day, and in this time, my answer boils down to “no”. I’m not a no guy. I’ve always liked to keep an opportunity alive, play the "greatest option is having options" thing, and be sure that I was not missing out on something. But today I find myself shutting the doors and saying a prayer that if I missed the right thing because of needing the time away, that in the future, those opportunities and people will still be there and interested. I read an article recently that said that it’s just the opposite today. That when you take yourself out of the market for an extended time that it’s very hard to break back in and that there is a short shelf-life for out of the market CEOs. I guess, I will get to be a data point in the next study. Staying firm and sticking to my going dormant and climbing into the cocoon plan.