The Day I Learned That “Yes” Can Cost You Everything
Why one Comic-Con disaster taught me that saying no is sometimes the most professional move you can make.
Early in my career, I got a pretty cool gig with someone I had done multiple shoots with at that point.
The gig was shooting at Comic-Con for one of the bigger comedy YouTube channels at the time.
Big brand. Huge event.
It definitely felt like one of the more exciting jobs I had up to then.
I’d just graduated college, and was eager to prove myself and get “in” with a company like that.
I did the shoot and everything went great. I had successfully juggled camera and audio with my Canon 7D and Zoom H4N strapped to my belt loop in pure one-man-band, solo shooter fashion. Everything felt good.
So when the producer - who was also the on-camera talent - asked me on the drive back to L.A. if I could transfer the footage to her laptop before her flight to New York, I hesitated.
Not because I didn’t want to help.
Because something in my gut said, “This is a bad idea”.
We were bouncing down I-5 in stop-and-go traffic, I was half-drained, and her Macbook was balanced on a gear bag.
But she was insistent, and back then, Dropbox and Google Drive were barely functional for large files - and upload speeds were laughable.
So I said yes.
I put the first card in the reader.
We hit a bump…
The USB connection jiggled.
And the card dismounted mid-transfer.
In that split second, the card - and an entire DAY of the shoot - corrupted.
My stomach dropped.
I knew exactly what had happened.
I stopped the transfer immediately and waited until we were stable to continue - but it didn’t matter. That card was toast. The footage was gone. The studio had to make do with what was left, and I could tell by their tone that “make do” wasn’t on the shot list.
I was cursing Apple and their touchy drive mounting situation. I was furious - mostly at myself.
Not for the accident. For ignoring my instincts.
That day taught me something I’ve carried through every stage of my career:
Saying no isn’t unprofessional. It’s responsible.
When you’re early in your career, you think the fastest way to impress people is to say yes to everything.
Yes, I’ll stay up all night.
Yes, I’ll take on the extra edit.
Yes, I’ll make the impossible deadline work.
But sometimes, the most professional thing you can do is protect the process - and your boundaries.
That one corrupted card didn’t end my career, but it did change how I approached it.
I stopped saying yes to calm someone else’s anxiety at the expense of my own intuition.
And ironically, that shift - learning when to say no - is what built my reputation later as someone people could actually trust.
🧠 Takeaway:
Boundaries build credibility faster than obedience.
If something feels risky, rushed, or wrong - it probably is.
The client might not like hearing “no,” but they’ll respect the results it protects.
Has this ever happened to you?
Stay strong,
Alex