Sometimes the answer is 'no'

Have we become such people pleasers that people just expect their requests to be answered 'yes'? I know I've struggled with it. This week I said 'no' to someone about something and now it's an issue. It shouldn't be, but it is.
Ronald Morrish (parenting/teaching guru/motivational speaker) was once booked a year in advance for a pre-school conference. A few weeks before he was to speak they called to cancel him, once they read his work and realised that he used the word 'no'. 'We don't believe in saying no" they told him. 'Why not?'...if you don't say no to kids when they are young, how are they going to learn to say no for themselves when they are older? Interesting...