Rejection, to most people, isn’t a fun. It can sting; it can hurt. I could argue that it is the aversion to this pain that prevents most people from succeeding. Successful people and successful entrepreneurs are the ones that can get used to that pain. Some are numb to it. Some have developed thicker skin. Some have developed specialized coping mechanisms. Whatever the method, they take rejection in stride.
But why is this important? It is important because if you are creating new ideas, creating new things, innovating, pushing boundaries, pushing people, attempting to change the world, etc., you are going to face rejection regularly. The question is – when you face this rejection what do you do? Roll over and give up . . . or keep on going?
Here is the good news. There are ways to make you as impervious to rejection as Superman is to bullets. Let’s call it – Desensitizing Training (DT). The major part of DT is to put yourself into situations where you will be rejected more often then not. By experiencing this rejection over and over and not dying, you will begin to realize two things: 1) rejection doesn’t kill you; 2) each rejection actually gets you closer to your goal.
For example, I was selling books door to door one summer in college. I learned many important life lessons in the book field. One lesson I learned is that I would make a sale every 3.5 or so houses I would enter. Therefore, I knew that each rejection I got was just getting me closer to my next sale.
The below video addresses rejection and shows how one person puts himself into rejection situation on a daily basis as part of his DT. Serial entrepreneur Chris Dixon emphasizes the importance of rejection, “Every day, I try to get rejected,” He does what it takes on a daily to make sure he is rejected, even if he has to send unsolicited emails to Steve Jobs.
If you are not getting rejected, you are not have the success you could have. You are not pushing the boundaries. Your ideas are not that innovative. How do you up your rejection quota for the day? How can you put yourself into rejection situations?
