Winning Truth Number
33
It’s Never Personal
I must have approached over 100 publishers for my first book Winning The Game Of Life. To say that I had enjoyed an array of rejections is an understatement. There were folks who never replied back, some who kindly rejected it and then there were those who weren’t so kind about it. But oh! I kept on pushing past all the rejections until my book got to the hands of a well known publicist in the States who said ‘Hang on a second, you’ve got something here’, and within days we had a publishing deal on the table.
As I travel the world, training individuals and organizations, I come across some immensely talented people in different fields. Their talent is however buried under a pile of rejections they have faced. Sadly, they have taken it personally. In every challenging situation where rejections are offered left right and center, the first exit door that appears to many is the one that reads, ‘Give up now. Save yourself further headaches and heartburns’. The difference between those succeeding and the ones who give up is one thing, their ability to deal with rejections. The majority of people take rejection personally. Winners know that rejection is part of the process.
Only because a few people don’t share your views about something, doesn’t mean that your idea has no value. All it takes is for one person to see it, and that person is You. There are countless examples of people who started off being the only ones who visualized the power of their skills, abilities, products or services they had. It took them several rejections before they had a breakthrough. Here is the key though, they persevered passed all the rejections and kept pushing forward without taking it to heart.
If we were all to take rejection to heart then we wouldn’t have the pleasure of having a computer on every desk, we would still be riding horses instead of cars, the Harry Potter franchise wouldn’t be around, Denzel Washington wouldn’t be one of the highest paid actors of his time, and certainly we wouldn’t have many of the things we take for granted that were initially laughed at and blatantly rejected in its infancy.
Always remember that what is being rejected is your idea or your offering, not you. Rejection stems from other people’s limitations, beliefs, fears and different perspective on things. Think of a time when you were on a plane and the steward or stewardess did their rounds offering tea or coffee. You would have declined their offer at some stage, and it would be fair to say that they face numerous rejections. However I don’t believe that they take it personally. They understand that their offer of tea and coffee is what is being rejected, nothing more. You too should learn to never take rejections to heart.
Take a moment to reflect on this truth. Consciously live this truth in week 33.