No is a perfectly good response to a request; why, then, do we feel the need to get someone to change their answer? If you ask someone on a date, and they do not want to go and say so, it is not your right, responsibility, or anything else to goad them into changing their mind. Saying No to you is not a tease, or a coy response, or a foreign word that you need to figure out the meaning of – No means No. If you ask someone to be on a committee, and they say No, you don’t get to guilt them into changing their mind. That also means that we should not use No when we mean “Talk me into it,” or “Flatter me and I will consider it.” Be straightforward in your responses. Learn to say No when you mean No, and learn to take No for an answer.