I have been dealing with rejection for a long time. When you make your way up in sales you come to terms with rejection early. You deal with it and move on. It is part of every single selling day. On the phone. In the meeting. In follow up to the proposal. It’s coming.
In training they teach you not to take it personally. They aren’t rejecting you – they are simply rejecting your company, product, service, solution, plan, proposal etc.
I always had a hard time with that one. More often then not it they probably were rejecting me, particularly if my stuff was pretty comparable to the other guys stuff (hint: it usually is).
Although it is probably a better idea not to take rejection too personally, it most certainly makes sense to offer any rejection a moment of reflection.
Rejection reflections can offer a world of insight, growth and perspective. They also help you prepare for the inevitable next time. Being rejection ready and minimizing any ripple effect is a necessary skill, especially in an era where rejection occurs publicly.
If you are making your work public the rejection is coming. It is only a matter of time.
Sit on a panel. Make a YouTube video. Write an article. It’s coming. Often times in direct correlation to the popularity of the work. Explode out of the box and the negative force of rejection and criticism is likely to grow.
Fear of rejection is enough to stop people dead in their tracks. Or at least slow them down.
But we don’t get to control the critic. Nope. We simply get to own our response. So when the criticism comes – keep going!
The big secret is that it doesn’t matter what everyone thinks.
Because you don’t need everyone. You only need to impact enough.
Upon reflection, that is a pretty good lesson learned.
