I will confess: I hate rejection.
I still get the shakes when I think about the first time my family dog, a gorgeous black and brown German Shepherd named Hazel, didn’t appreciate me attempting to ride her like a horse and instead threw me off into the front yard. Denied!
Some of those same feelings of rejection have come my way since I’ve embarked on the journey to create a business venture that meets my needs for social change and cash and change.
I’m fully convinced that the entrepreneurial process is more mental than money, more spiritual than sales.
It is more than a job, certainly more than a hobby or project. If you are fully investing yourself into the actualization of your ideas, the process should be a transformative one, working over your mind and psyche, and in the end endowing you with a new venture to bring good to the world and yourself, as well as a new perspective on your day-to-day living.
One of the earliest lessons I have learned is that tenacity and efficacy are required of an entrepreneurial-minded individual if they are to reach this height of independence, success and self-actualization. This is true whether your entrepreneurial mindset leads you to a new business, new nonprofit advocacy group or even a new project or program within your current organization.
You should be willing to face the inevitable rejection and still "climb back on the dog" if you truly believe in the convictions of your ideas. We often hear that X percentage of new business ideas never make it to Y phase of the business development process. The data may be accurate, but they may not be wholly inclusive.
How do you factor in the inability of some people to pick up what could be roadblocks to success and turn them into stepping-stones to the next opportunity that will allow them to grow their dream into a reality? That factor may be the very key to success that burgeoning entrepreneurs need to cross the river from idea to new & thriving enterprise.
It’s widely known that Michael Jordan, the great baller and shot caller, was cut from a high school basketball team because at 5’11” MJ The Soon-To-Be-Great was "too short." Any former student-athlete will tell you about the sting of that kind of rejection (Oh, you gon’ cut ME?!!).
However, to the benefit of the UNC men’s basketball program, the NBA and Nike, Mr. Jordan chose to make that initial rejection a stepping-stone to then become a leading scorer in the Junior Varsity league, making it impossible for him to be cut the next year. Of course, he went on to make history and become a legacy all because he took the initial rejection in stride and stayed on the court until he became the G.O.A.T.* (Although Derrick Rose is giving him a run for that title…LeBron who?)
On the court or in the boardroom, the strive for greatness requires efficacy and tenacity even more than demonstrated talent or skill.
If you aren’t willing to readjust and learn before returning to your dreams and ideas, even when faced with rejection, how could someone else feel compelled to invest in you and those dreams? Your ideas may be pie in the sky, but they are still YOUR ideas, your pie and your sky. The rejection can be just the stepping-stones you’ll need to continue on the path to fulfillment of those dreams, if you make it so.
*Greatest of All Time
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosengrant/3718650997/
