“When the doors start opening, it’s very easy to think the right answer is always yes,” Duff told graduates of Northeastern University in her commencement address. “Yes to the next project. Yes to the next expectation. Yes to saying yes. For years, I said yes to almost everything because I thought that’s what you were supposed to do when you were lucky enough to have opportunities. You take them. All of them.”

But somewhere between commercials, appearances, and the relentless pressure to figure out “what’s next,” Duff began to realize that taking on every opportunity came at a cost.

“I realized just because something is a good opportunity or a good paycheck, it doesn’t mean it’s right. By simply accepting what the world was offering to me, I was losing my own voice,”  the now 38-year-old added. “I was reacting instead of asking myself what I really wanted.”

In an uncertain job market, Duff tells Gen Z: ‘Choose what gives you room to grow’

Over time, Duff learned to step back and redirect her energy—moving away from the constant churn of projects and reshaping her career on her own terms. Today, she’s a millionaire, a mother of four, and serves as chief brand director of Below 60°, a fragrance company. Her message to Gen Z: success doesn’t require having your entire future mapped out.

“Redirecting your energy in one area can mean sprinting in another. The key is that I was choosing where my energy went instead of letting others choose for me,” she said. “A wonderful part of giving yourself that space is you can look back and see the distance you’ve traveled.”

Duff also recognized the uncertainty facing the class of 2026, noting that many graduates are entering industries being reshaped in real time by emerging technologies like artificial intelligence—and that some of the jobs they’ll hold in five years may not even exist yet.

“Choose what excites you. Choose what challenges you. Choose what gives you room to grow. And just as importantly, choose to let go of what no longer serves you,” she said. “This will give you the freedom to evolve and become exactly who you are meant to be. The world only becomes more interesting and accommodating and marvelous when people show up as they truly are.”

Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett have preached the importance of saying no

Duff’s instinct to say yes to opportunities early in her career is not surprising—it’s a choice many ambitious people might make when doors unexpectedly begin opening.

And some business leaders have argued that openness remains a crucial ingredient for success. For example, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski has said that workers who stay flexible through career twists and turns are often best positioned to grow.

“ To be a yes person is way better than to be a no person,” Kempczinski said in an interview with LinkedIn. “So as those career twists and turns happen, the more that you’re seen as someone who’s willing to say yes and to go do something, it just means you’re gonna get that next call.”

At the same time, others have echoed Duff’s realization that saying yes to everything can ultimately become counterproductive.

Outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with CBS News earlier this year that one of the biggest leadership lessons he learned from Steve Jobs was the power of focus.

“[Jobs] had an idea of focus that you say ‘no’ to a thousand things to say ‘yes’ to the one that’s truly important,” Cook said. “And that when you do something, you should do it at an excellence level where good isn’t good enough: it has to be insanely great.”

Similarly, Melinda French Gates said billionaire investor Warren Buffett taught her that once people identify their priorities, saying no becomes much easier.

“Warren Buffett once said to us early at the [Gates] Foundation’s life, ‘Find your bull’s-eye of what you’re working on, and let the other things fall away. You’ll feel better if you keep your talents in that bull’s-eye, keep working those issues, and you’ll feel less bad about letting other things go,’” French Gates said in a LinkedIn interview last year. “And I think that’s true.”