In the early days of my using Macintosh computers, my boss at the time wanted me to get chummy in the local Mac Users Group. Why? Because he wanted me to borrow hardware, like an external floppy disk drive reader that read the new double-side/double-density disks.

I hated begging, especially since I knew that my boss was rich. I didn't like begging for myself, and rarely did. Begging for another, and, especially, a wealthy other, was especially loathesome. I only worked up my courage to ask one person that particular favor. I remember how he looked at me, in extreme puzzlement . . . bordering at once on both awe and revulsion at my effrontery. We barely knew each other. He did not let me borrow his drive.

I sympathized.

I have done many things that I'm ashamed of. That was something I was ashamed of at the time. But I was under orders.

One of the great things about self-employment is one feels under no compulsion to do whatever it is some boss or other says. You have no boss. You have clients.

This makes a lot of difference.

Most of my regrets in life are not for saying No but for saying Yes. My favorite idiomatic phrase is Nothing doing. In my mind it unites emphatic resistance with subtle wu wei.

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