Yes Man

Have you watched the Hollywood movie “Yes Man”? This story is actually based on a book written by Daniel Wallace.

Ironically, the concept for Yes Man came out of heartbreak. Wallace had broken up with his girlfriend and was depressed. “You close up a bit when something like that happens,” he recalls. “Saying ‘No’ when your friends ask you to go out becomes a habit.”

Then he met a mystery Indian man on a London bus who advised him that the way out of his malaise would be to say “Yes” to every request.

Danny decided to try it for 24 hours: “The first thing was a phone call from a man asking if I wanted double glazing. I said ‘Yes’ and we arranged a meeting.

Then I remembered I already had double glazing, so I told him. He asked, ‘Are you wasting my time?’’ and I said, ‘Yes.’ I realised there and then that this could be interesting.”

Giving affirmative answers over the next six months resulted in Wallace buying a car he did not want, flying to Singapore for a weekend when a magazine advertisement suggested it and to Holland when invited by e-mail scammers. He spent time in Wales with a hypnotist and his fez-wearing dog (who can also hypnotise people) and had to endure an excruciating dinner with his ex and her new boyfriend when they asked him to join them.

Yet, in the end, everything worked out for Wallace. Saying “Yes” to a request from an Australian girl called Lizzie to buy her a ticket for the Edinburgh Festival led to him finding a new girlfriend. The six months ended with the biggest “Yes” of all – Danny and Lizzie are now married.

“The experiment opened my eyes to the realisation that ‘Yes’ is a word of change and ‘No’ is a dead end. You should try to say ‘Yes’ to everything because how do you know what the right thing to do is?”

The Yes Man’s three easy steps to a more positive life:

1. Smile More

2. Talk to a stranger

3. Take a chance

SAY “YESSSSSSSSSSSSsssssss”!!!!!!

Source: Reader’s Digest, Feb 2009, Page 74-75.