Rejection
I have been thinking about rejection in a profession sense. For example, a salesperson tries to sell some products. Some people will like the products and buy, some people will reject. A good salesperson doesn't mean that he doesn't get rejected, on the contrary, he probably gets the most rejection. But on the amount of mass rejection stands out the mass sales volumn. Another example could be a missionary, trying to convert people's belief. Some people will be converted, and some people will reject. A good missionary doesn't mean that everyone will like him and accept him, in fact, Jesus had the most rejection than anyone else in the world.
Scenario 1
Please read my earlier blog with the title name"Baby Walk" in August. (click on the right hand side for August archive).
This is a new attempt. Everything's new: you're new, the business is new, you're inexperienced. There's a lot of learning on the way. You deal with rejection like the baby deal with falling down while learning to walk--you get stronger and stronger and eventually you take off.
There's a pattern: step out-- fall down-- hurt--healed(forget)--try again. Usually there's quite a bit of time in between.
Scenario 2
An adult with a weak bone (as he has never thought of the need of taking Calcium!). He walked on the road and tripped over. And ouch! He broke his bone and was taken into the hospital. It hurt him bad, and he never wanted to fall again.
This is the kind of people that have got themselves involved in a business. They meet rejection and they get hurt. And their way of thinking is too old and too stale and lack of calcium. It just takes them too long to recover. And they don't want to think about business ever again.
Scenario 3
Professional volleyball player.
Have you ever watched on TV how the Japanese volleyball coach trains his players how to catch the volleyballs? If your a Chinese, I'm sure you know exactly what I mean.
The coach will strike the volleyballs in different directions, and the player had to jump like a fish, hit the ground and then do somersaults to get up quickly and then jump out again trying to catch another ball. He keeps falling down, rolling over, and getting up, falling down again, and getting up again. He goes wherever the ball goes, without even thinking, it becomes almost an instinct. He has developed a way of falling so he wouldn't get too hurt. And during the training session or a match, he wouldn't hesitate to fall in order to catch the balls. And he gets up in no time. He's strong, fit, and flexible. He's fast, sharp, and react immediately.
Well, obviously this is the successful salesperson. He meets a lot of rejection, but he just goes past, past, past. Not interested? past, next one! not interested? past again,still next one... He goes wherever possibilities arise, he reacts almost instinctively, he does his best to "catch" them, and if he catches he catches, if he misses he missess, and he rolls up in no time. He doesn't have time for hurt, he just redirects all his energy toward the next catch.
Hm, this speaks a lot to me. It looks like the difference between a winner and a loser is the time that is allowed after each rejection. And the key to deal with rejection is to quickly redirect your energy from feeling hurt to the next target. When you move quickly, the new excitement will take over the sickening feeling before it takes root. Also learn how to fall, understand why people reject and develop a strategy to respond, plays a very important part of our well being.
Thursday, October 02, 2003
