Rejection: Crippled or Closer

Rejection is an inevitable part of life. Whether it’s dating, career success, or anything else, you are definitely going to face rejection in life. Not only are you guaranteed to face rejection, but it also comes with some really uncomfortable feelings.

The most successful people weathered rejection. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper because he “Lacked Imagination.” Stephen King’s first book was rejected thirty times before landing a publishing deal.

There’s two ways you can handle rejection. You can get caught up in the discomfort & let it cripple you, or you can view it as bringing you closer to your ultimate goal.

Anyone with a background in sales knows rejection well, and knows that it’s a numbers game. In my business, we have certain ratios that have been proven over time. X number of phone calls = X number of appointments set. X number of appointments with potential clients = X number of sales. With those proven numbers, the people in my business have adopted the mentality that rejection just means you’re one step closer to your goal.

So why does rejection cripple some people? It’s because everyone’s number is different, and unlike with closing ratios in sales, you may not know how many “No’s” you have to get through before you get a “Yes.” Stephen King didn’t know that he had to hear thirty “No’s” before getting published. But if he had let the 25th “No” cripple him, then he never would’ve sold over 350 million copies of his books.

Too many people get caught up in the discomfort of rejection and allow themselves to make excuses, or allow it to affect their beliefs. Thousands of other people got cut from their high school basketball teams and just said, “Well, basketball isn’t for me. I’m not good enough at it.” Thousands of aspiring writers quit after publishers rejected their work.

So how do you handle rejection? Does it cripple you, or does it bring you closer? I strongly advise you to adopt a mentality of “closer” over “crippled.”