3. You can’t do that, why even try?

No, no, no! Don’t say that, even if you’re trying reverse psychology. You might not know how they will react, so why break their confidence? You’re basically telling them that they won’t succeed in what they are planning on doing, so why even bother to do so.

Of course, we understand that you want them to have realistic expectations and you are not trying to sugar-coat their situation, but how can you know what is good for somebody? What if the best path to success was failure? Encourage them to at least try! It’s the best thing to do!