An invitation only counts if no is an option

I once invited someone to let their guard down with me. Then I told them the rest of it: an invitation to let it down is only valuable if keeping it up is an option. And it was.

I think you can’t be both grounded and guarded. One pulls you away from the other. But nobody gets argued or pushed out of being guarded. The most I can do is make the invitation real, which means the answer can be no, and the answer can be not yet.

I work the same way. I don’t push a business owner toward a change. I invite, and I mean it when I say whenever you’re ready.