How do you handle rejection and turn it into a positive?

How do you handle rejection and turn it into a positive? –@jaysern

The other day I saw a man pass a woman on the street. He was smiling at her. She smiled back. So he stopped and said, “hey, can I have your number?”

WHOAH! I thought. That was pretty cool. How come in all the many years I was dating I NEVER DID THAT. I smiled at people all the time. Sometimes people smiled back. But I never stopped.

Oh, I even remember another time. I was walking with a friend of mine who was a pro chess player (by pro I mean he made about $50 a day gambling in Washington Square Park). Some girl smiled at him. He said, to me, “hold on,” and he veered off in her direction. The next thing I knew they were dating. For about a week!

These guys weren’t afraid of rejection.

And I know for a fact, my friend had been rejected a thousand times. In fact, he got so good at rejection it didn’t matter to him anymore. He could get rejected 10 times a day and on the 11th attempt he’d meet the love of his life.

I’ve been rejected a million times over in business. And it frustrates me every time. But for every 99 rejections you will have one success that changes your life.

But if you stop at the first rejection then you lose. Then you don’t get to #100 where your life has been changed.

When I was younger I used to write a lot of fiction. I got rejected probably 500 times on stories, novels, poems, etc that I submitted around.

But here I am. Still writing. And now people read me. Well, some people. I’m still trying to improve. I also still get emais saying, “you suck!” And then I feel bad. But I know I’m going to get that as long as I keep doing what I love doing.

So if you aren’t getting rejected enough, you aren’t doing what you love doing. Get rejected some more. And then succeed.