How do you decline your friend's request?
By yeyelee
@yeyelee (370)
China
August 28, 2010 8:04am CST
Today my friend requests me to help him to accomplish his business assignment by selling products to our university's students,and he promises to give me some commision on sales.I was still studying in campus and school will start up immidiatly,this reminds him of me.He thinks when the freshers come,his products must be hot and sell well,and most important of all,he doesn't have to endure the great pressure.
But till then I'll have some experiments to conduct and haven't extra time to do business.The most horrible thing is that if my supeivisor bumps into me,how should he feel.So I don't wanna do such a thing.
We are from the same village and grow up together scince childhood.But we have little connection with each other recent years.Scared of breaking our relationship,I really don't know how to response him.If you have run into such a problem,how do you decline your friend?
1 person likes this
14 responses
@greygoo (795)
• Philippines
28 Aug 10
hmm...you probably just need to tell that friend that exact things you told us here.
that you will be busy, and you wouldn't want your supervisor bumping into you while you're doing other stuff.
don't worry^_^ i think that wouldn't lead to the destruction of your friendship.
after all, friends are meant to understand:)
@aevans (255)
• Malaysia
15 Sep 10
to be honest, i am not really good in declining my friends' request. i seem like a "yes man" for them. every time when my friends request for something, it is hard for me to say no. i was learning how to reject my friends' request, but when after they begging me for help, i will still accept their request. instead of spending time to figure out how to reject, i rather faster finish my work and help them. i just not good in rejecting friends' request, sometime it really bother me.
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
29 Aug 10
Hi Yeyelee,
Welcome to mylot. I think the best thing to do would to just be honest and tell him that you have way too much going on yourself right now to do that. Selling products can be pretty time consuming and as you mentioned, you are not sure how your supervisor would feel about it. Would you be helping him to cheat by helping him out on this? It doesn't sound as if the two of you are real close. If he were to get angry at you turning him down then I think that right there would say everything about the friendship. Just tell him the truth.
@shearry18 (118)
• Davao, Philippines
29 Aug 10
Just tell him honestly how you feel. If your friend can't understand that then he is not worth it. Explain to him properly that you have things to do. When your done doing it, then you can spend some time to help him. I guess your friend is not that bad who can't understand regarding about your situation.
@xtmlove (402)
• China
29 Aug 10
Hi,yeyelee,I'm sorry to hear that you are in trouble with this thing.But don't worry,I have some advices here may be useful to you.Firstly,you should know what friend means?Friend means understanging each other,sharing happy and sad.If he treat you as a friend,he should understand the situation you are stand.Secondly,may be you can help him once,twice...but not every time. After all,you are busying now.You should tell him what difficult you are confront implicitly.Thirdly,if you could't help him to sell his products,you also can give him some advices to this thing.It means that you also can help him.As we know,friend is one wealth of our life,so you should resolve this problem reasonable.
@GemmaR (8517)
•
28 Aug 10
It's always very hard to decline something which a friend asks you to do. At the end of the day though, you have to do what you think is best for you, and if you don't think that you will get anything from what your friend is asking you to do, or if you think you will lose out on something else because of what they've asked you to do, then you should just explain to them why you don't want to do it. If he is a good friend to you, he won't mind.
@jaiho2009 (39142)
• Philippines
28 Aug 10
You can tell your friend about your situation.
It is better that you should be honest to him from the start,rather than saying yes and later you can't fulfill your promise.
He will understand you if he really count you as his friend,coz a true friend will always there to understand.
If he feel sorry about it,then at least you would find what kind of friend he is.
@greenteab7 (94)
• China
28 Aug 10
Hi yeyelee
How are you doing today.
I know its hard to say no, but if you are really dont wanna do that. You have to say no, of ourse, add a reason why you dont wanna do that. Try to be euphemistic. He is your friend, alright? And obviously you scare to break yours relationship. So, just try to find someway to decline your friend, and remember try to be euphemistic.
Good luck, buddy. Have a nice day.
@bokal2703 (802)
• Philippines
28 Aug 10
Well, you just need to tell him that you cannot do it. It is better to tell him earlier so he can find someone to help him with it. Tell him you love to help him, however you do not have much time now anymore for any extra activities since you are busy with your own matters.
@Catana (735)
• United States
28 Aug 10
The best thing to do is be honest. If you don't want to be a sales person, there's no reason why you should agree to do something like that. Besides, if it's a school assignment, wouldn't it be cheating for him to get someone else to do part of his work? I don't understand why you would say you have little connection with him now, but don't want to break the relationship. Kind of contradictory, from where I'm standing.
@yeyelee (370)
• China
28 Aug 10
Sorry for that i haven't describe our relationship clearly.His family's house is just in front of mine.We are neighbours. So aothough we are both stay out of home right now but still in the same city.If I couldn't help him,I'm afraid of this will damage our parents' relationship.Thanks for your suggestion.I'll phone him tomorrow.
@32FlavorsAndThenSome (149)
• Philippines
28 Aug 10
If he's your friend, you shouldn't have to worry about that. he should be able to understand you. Just explain to your friend that you have priorities, too. He shouldn't take that against you, he should also try to understand that you have other things to do.
@kuro123qwer (33)
• India
29 Aug 10
I will be completely honest with my friend & decline his request clearly
