Dealing with Rejection

No one likes to talk about rejection or failure. It’s pursued as dark and gloomy. So how do we deal with rejection? Or Do we need to deal with rejection?

The power of NO and failure is so hyped nowadays that it can take down even the best of us. But the positive aspects of NO is so underrated that people don’t even want to conceive trying or dealing with it. Most of the rejection is not even a rejection, it’s an objection. Also, Rejection is just a mere opinion and it’s not so much about you as asking another individual for a favour or request or what it might be. Rejection that you get could be because of variable factors from their previous experiences, culture, upbringing or mood they are in at that moment.

For example, Go out today after reading this and ask a random people to give you 100 Euros, You will get a NO unless you are lucky. But this NO won’t kill you from inside because you expected a NO and you are practical enough to know nobody is going to give you 100 Euros without any credible reasons. But same scenario, you go to your client or VC and ask for millions but then when you get a NO, you will leave and this NO will get to you.

Perfect Example (True Story), a person decides to plant a flower in stranger’s yard. Normally, no one will allow it, so this person went to a random person’s house and ask “Can I please plant this flower in your yard?” The stranger said NO. He asked “Sir, Can I know why? It’s for free and it’s a kind act?” The stranger replied my dog will come up and eat the flower and I don’t want him to do that, not only that but the girl next door really loves flowers and she might be happy about it. So what he does he walks next door and ask the same and the lady was more than happy. And so by him asking a question WHY? at the end of the rejection turned out to be just monumental change in the way that he understood what’s happening because he would have walked away from that strangers house and been like it must be the way I look, or the clothes I am wearing or I am just weird. Or any of those things common people might think because I know myself personally that would be one of the last reasons I would think and not that a dog will come and eat the petals.

For every NO, you should ask a question and wait for the reason. Don’t run away, stay there and try to massage it into another way. Ask WHY? This way you learn something new otherwise you don’t. You can ask the same question and come up with different reason for rejection.

Have a positive mindset with the way you approach. Early on, it’s the emotional thing but then its shift to let me ask a question and then let me see how I can manoeuvre from that point to how can I take advantage of this opportunity that presents itself.

Rejection is Human and when most individual gets rejected, they start looking internally oppose to more balanced overview of what has happened. To access it correctly, you need to look at it from 2 perspectives: 1> what is the other person’s position and why did they feel that way. 2> Why do I feel the way I feel. Then, you get credible idea of why the rejection took place. You need to understand the other person’s vantage point because you obviously know yours.

NOTE: Always ask for smaller favours after getting a NO. The reason why that works is because people don’t like to reject, it’s not the human nature to just keep rejecting. Very often, someone has a good reason when they say NO. Always have 2 requests in mind. The first one might get rejected but the second one has better chances of acceptance.