Faith and Business 101: Turning Rejection into Motivation

Rejection….how it stings, hurts, and smarts. No one likes rejection, no one likes criticism. I’m especially hyper sensitive to it, always have been. Though I’ve always loved writing since I learned how to form letters with a pencil, I’ve never been able to take rejection, or even constructive criticism very well–especially when it comes to my writing. It got to the point where I selfishly decided in my young teenage years that I was no longer going to pursue public writing or contests because I couldn’t handle the rejection and criticism that came along with them. I’ve since gotten over this–but I still struggle with the fear of rejection. I recently had an article I wrote rejected by 3 different sites because it wasn’t good enough in their eyes. One went so far as to tell me that the content “was not of lasting quality or good content that our readers would appreciate”. Big Ouch. The sting of rejection still hits home and makes me want to go hide and give up.

I feel that I’m not alone, however. In fact many people never even try to begin with because the fear of rejection, of criticism, of failure overwhelms them. The fact is yes–you’re probably not as good as you think, and yes–your first, second, third, fourth tries might not be good enough. The truth is that you might never get that position you tried for and you might have to just keep re-writing if you want your article published.

The trick to success is to learn from every rejection, to rise above every seeming failure and to come away with lessons about the work and yourself. There have been several instances in my life when hurtful rejection turned into something much bigger and better later on. When I failed in Direct Sales I discovered that I wanted to run my own business–which through a series of events landed me in the work from home position I have now that I love and excel at. When I applied to help a PR Blogger run her site and was rejected, after the sting I thought to myself, “Why don’t I just do this all myself? I can do what they’re doing!” A few years later I have a successful PR Blog that is my most fun hobby ever.

The trick is to not be crippled by failure, not be oppressed by rejection. Yes–these things will happen, but they’re great for you. Get up, shake yourself off, change what needs to be changed or overcome and go on to do bigger and better things. Later on you’ll look back at the rejection and smile, because without it you would have never gotten to where you are today!

Copyright © Nicole Elliott, Moms of Faith, All Rights Reserved