The following is adapted from the recent book Small Actions: Leading Your Career to Big Success, by Eric Sim, CFA, and Simon Mortlock.
Nobody likes rejection. Which is why, over the years, Iâve developed a three-step process to transform situations from hopeless to hopeful. I call it the 3Ps approach:
- Perseverance
- Perspective
- Positivity
Let me give you some examples of how to put the 3Ps into action.

Leaving by 7 pm
Getting a table on a weekend at some of Hong Kongâs most popular restaurants can feel, with only mild exaggeration, like winning the lottery. But hope springs eternal, and like all those people who patiently queue up at lottery counters hoping to buy the winning ticket, I canât help but try my luck at my favorite Italian restaurant chain. Its thin-crust pizzas and aglio e olio pasta are just that irresistible. My family loves to have Sunday dinner at the busy Kennedy Town branch. Of course, we usually make spur-of-the-moment decisions to go, and itâs all but impossible to reserve a table on the same day. But thatâs where the 3Ps came in.
One Sunday afternoon, I called the restaurant.
âGood afternoon!â a woman with a cheerful voice answered.
âDo you have a table for four tonight?â I asked hopefully.
âNo sir, weâre fully booked,â she replied with a tinge of regret.
âHow about at 6 pm?â I countered.
âSir, weâre fully booked,â she repeated, probably thinking, âWhich part of âfully bookedâ do you not understand, sir?â
But I wasnât deterred. âWhat if we leave by 7 pm?â I asked.
There was a slight pause on the other end of the line. âLet me check,â she said. A few seconds later, she replied, âYes sir, we have a table.â
I used the 3Ps to change her mind. Hereâs how it works:

Perseverance: Show Your Effort
I didnât hang up after she said âfully booked.â Instead, I came up with a counter proposal. When I suggested leaving the restaurant early, I showed her I could be flexible on timing.
Perspective: Understand the Other Personâs Priority
The restaurant employeeâs main concern wasnât catering to my needs; it was ensuring that customers who had reservations were seated by the allotted time. She didnât care whether I wanted a table to celebrate my childâs birthday or my bossâs resignation. Getting angry, saying how much business Iâd given the restaurant, or threatening never to go there again werenât going to work with her. Instead, I helped her do her job by offering her the restaurant hostess equivalent of an options trade in finance. I gave her a contract establishing her right (but not obligation) to chase me out at 7 pm.
But that Sunday night, I wasnât shooed away: The restaurant had enough room, so the option holder didnât need to exercise her option.
Positivity
Call me an eternal optimist, but I always hope I can flip a situation from unfavorable to favorable. Many people would have given up at âweâre fully booked.â Not me. I sought a compromise that was a winâwin solution for both sides. The restaurant is rarely full during the early evening, so I helped it use its resources more efficiently.

Image courtesy of Eric Sim, CFA
Can I Drop By?
The ability to change a ânoâ to a âyesâ is even more critical in our careers.
When I was working for a bank, a corporate client based in Taipei asked for a renminbi (RMB) construction loan to build an office tower in Shanghai. This was a 10-year loan, and my colleague from the loans department priced it accordingly, using the Peopleâs Bank of Chinaâs (PBOCâs) five-year or longer rate, which was then 5.94%.
In the cutthroat world of finance, that wasnât enough. Another bank offered the client a more âcreativeâ loan structure. Instead of the standard 10-year loan, the bank proposed a six-month arrangement that would be continually extended until the loan was paid off at the end of 10 years. This shorter loan period had a much lower interest rate of 4.86%.
My colleague came to me for advice on how to resurrect the deal. I suggested a loan in US dollars (USD) as well as a USDâRMB currency hedge to create a synthetic RMB loan with an all-in interest rate of 4.5%. It was cheaper than the other bankâs offer but was still a 10-year loan. We proposed our solution to the clientâs finance team. They liked it and submitted the idea to their CFO. The feedback was positive.
I had saved the deal! Or so I thought.
A week later, the client told us that they couldnât accept our proposal. Their CFO had already verbally committed to the other bank before he heard our innovative offer. We were devastated. I couldnât understand why the client had gone with our competitorâs pricier solution, so I asked if I could âdrop byâ for a coffee meeting in Taipei.
Over our lattes, I explained that under Mainland regulations, banks in China werenât allowed to price a long-term construction loan using the six-month PBOC lending rate. Should the âcreativeâ bank run into trouble with the regulator, its clients could be impacted. The finance manager from the client firm took what I said to heart. I left the meeting and flew back to Hong Kong the same afternoon. The next day, the client called to say weâd won the deal. Again, the 3Ps worked.

Perseverance: Show Your Effort
I continued to engage with the client even after they turned down our solution.
Perspective: Understand the Personâs Priority
There were two potential ânoâsâ here. First, the client could have refused to take the face-to-face meeting. Had I stressed the business trip was just to see them, they might have turned down the meeting. Taking it might have made them feel obligated to reverse their decision.
But when I asked, âCan I drop by?â they didnât feel as pressured. I gave them the option to say they werenât going to change their loan decision. This brings me to the second potential âno.â I found out during the meeting that the CFO would lose face if he withdrew his commitment to the other bank without justification. A better offer was not enough. But by highlighting the compliance risk of the competing proposal, I gave him a way out. A potentially noncompliant financing structure wasnât a risk worth taking.
Positivity
Despite having the door slammed shut after our competitor won the loan mandate, I still made the trip to Taipei and remained hopeful I could do a deal.

Thatâs the lesson of the 3Ps. We receive more rejections than approvals during our lives. People will say ânoâ to us more than they say âyes.â
But to achieve big things, the 3Ps method can help to persuade others, turn noâs to yeses, and reject rejection.
For more tips on career and personal development please refer to Small Actions: Leading Your Career to Big Success, by Eric Sim, CFA, and his co-author Simon Mortlock.
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All posts are the opinion of the author. As such, they should not be construed as investment advice, nor do the opinions expressed necessarily reflect the views of CFA Institute or the authorâs employer.
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