Being rejected from a job is probably one of the worst feelings ever. After taking time to compose your resume, cover letter, get letters of recommendation, KILL IT in an interview, then find out you didn’t get the job, feels like a brick is being thrown at you.
But it only takes one 'yes' to resolve all the somberness brought on by all the rejections. Think about some of the most successful people in history:
Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star because he “lacked imagination.”
Elvis Presley did a performance at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry and was told by the concert hall manager that he was better off driving trucks.
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard and started a failing business.
Thomas Edison was told by at a young age that he was “too stupid to learn anything” and made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at creating the light bulb.
Oprah Winfrey was fired from network TV because she “wasn’t fit for the camera”.
Stephen King’s first book was rejected 30 times.
J.K. Rowling was a penniless single mother before writing Harry Potter.
Heck, even Leonardo DiCaprio just won an Oscar award this year (obviously long overdue).
My point is, all of these people who ended up with very successful careers were rejected many times, but it didn’t stop them from thriving.
As Winston Churchill once said, “success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” As difficult as it may be to keep your head up when you face rejection after rejection, you have to get up every time you fall; one day, someone will give you a 'yes'.
People who beat themselves up over rejection and fail to get back up are unmotivated and must be okay with mediocrity. Those who are ambitious, adamant on reaching their goals and persistent will work diligently to prove how impressive their talents are.
The reason for this post is that I was recently rejected from a job I applied for that I was banking on getting an offer from. I was sure I was going to land the position. I felt like I had an impressive background, had good references, already had my foot in the door of this company, and had a great interview, but I still didn’t get it.
When I first received the rejection email, my heart broke a little. It made me think, “What is wrong with me? What are they looking for that I don’t have? I feel like I work so hard, how could they not recognize my work ethic and passion for this career?”
Then, after speaking with a friend, he instilled the thought in me that maybe it isn’t my fault. Maybe there is nothing wrong with me and that they were just unable to see what I could bring to the table.
He told me that another opportunity would come along, perhaps even better than the other path I was walking towards.
Alexander Graham Bell once said, “When one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”
My friend who was consulting me about my rejection said he has been rejected from so many jobs that instead of dwelling on his failures, he printed out all his rejections and posted them on a wall. He called it his “rejection wall”.
This inspired me to believe that if you aren’t getting rejected, your goals aren’t big enough. If you are always getting a bunch of people saying “yes”, you won’t be motivated to persevere. You won’t know how to deal with rejections in other aspects of life. You won’t be able to pull the positive out of a negative situation. It’s more advisable to not cover up failure but instead accept it and learn from your rejections so you can shoot even higher the next time. If you aren’t failing, there is no room for growth.
Rejection doesn’t mean you aren’t good enough and it is certainly not the end of the road. It just means the other person failed to see what you could offer.
Creating a rejection wall and embracing the 'no’s' in life is such an uplifting way to deal with the hardships that come with rejection. It will certainly make you happier in the end as well. It will feel even better when someone finally accepts you.
Having a physical representation of the obstacles you’ve overcome will allow you to see just how much work you’ve put into reaching the top. It will show you that you are not perfect, but you have the ambition to strive for greatness.
I’ll end my string of thought with a motivational quote by Calvin Coolidge. Hopefully, this inspires everyone out there to turn the negatives of being rejected into motivational fuel to succeed.
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and will always solve the problems of the human race.”
