Understanding the distinction

A friend of mine who sells life insurance policies possesses a ‘never say die attitude’. There have been several occasions that he has visited me, called me over the phone, sent me messages and listened to the several “not now” answers that I have given him. It never mattered to him and his persistence paid off just last week when he grabbed a policy of high value from me. So, how did he deal with the ‘No’ that I had often told him?

His comments to this question were very cryptic but provided powerful insights.
These were:
‘No’ is said to the request or proposal made
‘No’ is never forever
‘No’ is not to the ‘person’ but to the ‘request/ proposal’ made
‘No’, if seen this way, shows the way forward
‘No’ should not stop and intimidate us
‘No’ never stopped the extraordinary
‘No’ never stopped Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King
‘No’ is eventually and finally followed by ‘Yes’

He finally concluded saying that the ‘meanings’ we assign to ‘No’ make all the difference and hence it was important to understand this critical distinction and march on unabashedly.