Why should you not care about rejection?
Because rejection could lead you to greater success later on. The job you got rejected from leads you to
The job you got rejected from leads you to a better job. An example would be the Chinese billionaire Jack Ma of Alibaba. He was rejected from 12 jobs including KFC.
The school you didn’t get into can lead you to a better school or better people. An example would be Warren Buffett who got rejected from Harvard Business School and ended up meeting his mentor Ben Graham at Columbia Business School.
Ben shaped Warren’s entire investment style and Warren probably wouldn’t have been as rich as he is today without meeting him.
Here’s some motivation for how you should feel after rejection (for a job interview, a date, or failing to get a sale):
- Realize you’re still alive and the rejection didn’t hurt your health.
- Realize that your failures may pave the way to bigger success (see video below for examples)
- Work on yourself or what you’re selling. Does it suck? Make it better. Keep making it better.
A great book about this is called Getting There. There are ton’s of the world’s most successful people who ended up succeeding even more because of their failures and rejections.
I did a video interview with the author:
Whatever happens to you, realize it’s not the end of the world.
In fact, this rejection could be a blessing in disguise. To maximize your chances of this being the case, make sure you’re hustling and putting yourself out there to meet and open yourself up to more opportunities.
The final example I want to give is Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. Steve had a nice office job working for Hewlett-Packer. He was propositioned by Steve Jobs to start a company.
But Steve Wozniak was a square.
He never wanted to leave Hewlett-Packer. It was a nice safe job. He attempted numerous times to get them to take up their idea so he didn’t have to start a company.
This rejection lead to the creation of Apple because they wanted to independently run with their idea since no one else would.
What is one rejection you have had that has lead to greater success in the future?
