"Never say no when a client asks for something, even if it is the moon. You can always try, and anyhow there is plenty of time afterwards to explain that it was not possible"
About this Quote
Spoken like a man who understood that power often runs on the lubricants of optimism and delay. Nixon’s advice is not really about customer service; it’s about managing expectations in a world where saying “no” is less a fact than a failure of theater. Promise the moon, start building the rocket in public, and if gravity wins, deliver the bad news after you’ve harvested the goodwill.
The intent is tactical: keep the door open, keep the relationship warm, keep yourself in the game. “Never say no” flatters the client’s imagination and makes you appear capable, energetic, allied with their wants. The subtext is darker and more revealing: truth is negotiable, or at least postponable. The quote treats impossibility not as a boundary but as a communication problem to be handled later, when the emotional temperature has cooled and the client is already invested in you.
Coming from a president, the line carries extra voltage. Nixon governed in an era of sprawling bureaucracies, Cold War brinkmanship, and public persuasion campaigns where commitments were constantly made under uncertainty - and where the costs of walking them back were often higher than the costs of making them. This is the logic of the “ask”: policy as sales, diplomacy as promise management, leadership as keeping multiple audiences moving in the same direction even when the destination is fictional.
It’s charming in its candor, but also unnerving. It frames credibility as something you spend strategically, not something you preserve. That’s not merely a business tip; it’s a philosophy of governance where the explanation is always deferred, and accountability arrives late, if at all.
The intent is tactical: keep the door open, keep the relationship warm, keep yourself in the game. “Never say no” flatters the client’s imagination and makes you appear capable, energetic, allied with their wants. The subtext is darker and more revealing: truth is negotiable, or at least postponable. The quote treats impossibility not as a boundary but as a communication problem to be handled later, when the emotional temperature has cooled and the client is already invested in you.
Coming from a president, the line carries extra voltage. Nixon governed in an era of sprawling bureaucracies, Cold War brinkmanship, and public persuasion campaigns where commitments were constantly made under uncertainty - and where the costs of walking them back were often higher than the costs of making them. This is the logic of the “ask”: policy as sales, diplomacy as promise management, leadership as keeping multiple audiences moving in the same direction even when the destination is fictional.
It’s charming in its candor, but also unnerving. It frames credibility as something you spend strategically, not something you preserve. That’s not merely a business tip; it’s a philosophy of governance where the explanation is always deferred, and accountability arrives late, if at all.
Quote Details
| Topic | Customer Service |
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