Want to Grow? Get Comfortable Being the Bad Guy
Companies don’t fail for lack of ideas. They fail because no one’s willing to say no.
More than a few times, I’ve been at companies that hit a wall. Growth had stalled. Market share was flat. Our response? Swing harder. We spun up an internal search for ‘bold new ideas’—conceiving a wild array of new products, spinning up innovation labs, even exploring adjacent segments or entire industries where we had no real advantage. From the outside, it looked bold and brave. Internally, it was chaos.
We weren’t short on ideas. We were short on discipline.
What we lacked wasn’t vision or boldness—it was the willingness to say no. No to the new “pretty good” product that distracted from the under-resourced great one. No to the executive pet project with no strategic rationale. No to the initiatives that pulled resources away from the work most likely to move the needle.
The truth is, saying no is often the hardest part of leadership. It’s also the most essential for growth.
The Myth: Growth Comes From Saying Yes
Most companies—especially those struggling to grow—equate progress with expansion. Add more features. Enter new markets. Launch new initiatives. The word “yes” gets mistaken for ambition. “Yes” makes people feel collaborative. Supportive. Open-minded.
New initiatives unburden you from the nagging, known problems that’ve been keeping you up at night. They’re not weighed down by inconvenient things like facts…or math.
But unchecked yeses are a trap.
Every “yes” comes with hidden costs: complexity, distraction, operational strain. What looks like growth often turns into organizational clutter that slows you down and obscures what actually matters.
The Reality: Growth Comes From Focus
One of my good friends is co-founder of the fashion brand Cuyana, whose tagline is “Fewer, better”. It's meant to evoke minimalist elegance and reduce mindless consumption, but it might as well be a corporate strategy mantra.
The most successful companies aren’t the ones with the most ideas—they’re the ones that know which ideas not to pursue. They create focus. They say no to distractions. They channel energy into the few moves that truly matter.
Saying no frees up resources, sharpens strategy, and aligns teams. It forces clarity around what’s worth doing—and just as important, what’s not.
Why Saying No Makes You the Bad Guy
No one wants to be the person who says no to a colleague’s initiative. Or tells a team that their project is getting shut down. Or challenges the CEO’s latest “sure bet” or “gut feeling”, perhaps even at risk of derailing their future with that company.
But every organization needs that person.
Not because they’re risk-averse, but because they care about protecting momentum. Focus doesn’t happen by consensus. It requires someone willing to be unpopular in the moment to protect the company’s future. To be the realist when magical thinking starts to take hold.
That’s the job. And yes, it makes you the bad guy sometimes.
When “No” Is Fear—and When It’s Strategy
To be clear, not all “no” is created equal.
Some leaders say no reflexively. They resist change because they just don’t like change. They shoot down new ideas to maintain control. That’s not strategic—that’s insecurity.
But when “no” is used to protect focus and execution, it’s a powerful lever. It’s the kind of “no” that creates space for better thinking, deeper work, and stronger outcomes.
The difference comes down to intent: Are you protecting clarity or avoiding discomfort?
Fewer, Better
Growth is often framed as a story of addition. But for most companies, real growth requires subtraction. Fewer priorities. Fewer distractions. Fewer empty yeses.
If you want to grow, stop chasing every opportunity that crosses your desk. Stop treating “yes” as your default setting. Stop trying to keep everyone happy.
Say no more often. Explain why. And get comfortable being the bad guy.
That’s how you lead. That’s how you grow.