The Economic Times features a quote each day. Today’s quote is from Nassim Nicholas Taleb – Lebanese-American New York Polytech Professor, essayist, mathematical statistician, former option trader, risk analyst, and aphorist; whose work concerns problems of randomness, probability, complexity, and uncertainty.

You are rich if money you refuse tastes better than money you accept.

There’s something deliciously subversive about that…because so much of modern ambition trains us to salivate over the yes — the invoice, the deal, the opportunity, the “alignment-adjacent” thing we convince ourselves we can make work.

The thing is… if I’m being honest about my own life, I didn’t build my sense of wealth from some pristine track record of perfect alignment. Far from it. I spent years choosing projects because they paid. Saying yes when my body was screaming no. Taking on roles that were “logical” but never soul-fitting. There were seasons where receiving felt like survival, and giving — the real kind, the aligned kind — wasn’t even available to me.

So when Taleb talks about refusing money as a form of richness, I feel the truth of it… but I also feel the work it took to get there. Because for a long time, money I accepted tasted like compromise….like shrinking…like postponing myself. And the money I refused? That wasn’t freedom yet — it was fear. It was scarcity wearing responsibility’s clothes.

But there were moments — small at first — when I acted in real alignment.

• When I didn’t contort myself to meet a client where they should have been meeting me.
• When I walked away from an opportunity because my authority said “this will cost you more than it will pay you.”
• When I recognized a role wasn’t for me long before I squeezed myself into it.

And every single time I honored that inner authority, I noticed something else: earning became easier. It was no longer manic…it felt right… with less friction and more alignment

So where Taleb says you’re rich when the money you refuse tastes better than the money you accept — I’m only just beginning to understand that as a lived experience.

Taleb frames this through the lens of antifragility — the idea that true freedom comes not from accumulating more, but from refusing the choices that quietly erode your autonomy. The idea that in volatile systems, the middle — the comfortable, respectable, seemingly “smart” middle — is the part most likely to crack. What survives, even thrives, is the barbell: the ultra-safe on one end and the optional, high-upside experiments on the other. Nothing fragile in between.

This is also true for alignment

When we linger in that polite, socially acceptable middle — agreeing to things we know are wrong for us, tolerating misaligned commitments because they pay, bending our instincts to avoid discomfort — our internal systems become fragile. The cracks don’t appear loudly at first… they start in the tiny hairline fractures of resentment, exhaustion, and quiet dread.

Alignment is antifragile.
Pretending is fragile.

“You are rich if money you refuse tastes better than money you accept” becomes a litmus test… not for arrogance, not for bravado, but for agency. True richness is the freedom to follow your authority, to guard your optionality, to preserve the spaciousness that lets your Zone of Genius breathe without feeling constrained by forces beyond your control.

No is a form of expansion.

Taleb reminds us that in volatile environments, refusing the wrong thing often compounds faster than accepting the right thing.

Maybe wealth isn’t measured by accumulation. Maybe wealth is measured by refusal. By the things we are finally unwilling to trade away and by how good it feels to reclaim optionality, autonomy, and inner spaciousness.

And perhaps the most underrated form of wealth is recognizing when your no is the most aligned investment you can make.

Strategic Reflection Prompt

Where in your life or work is a “no” quietly trying to become your next expansion point?

About Giselle

I’m Giselle Hudson — Organization & People Development Sensemaker™, MCODE® Legacy Coach, writer and musician. I help leaders and independent professionals close the gap between strategy and execution by making invisible friction visible, so direction can finally translate into results.

If execution isn’t matching intent and you can’t quite see why, message me on WhatsApp. We’ll start with a brief Clarity Conversation to understand what you’re facing and decide together whether a focused Sensemaking Session is the right next step.