I’ve been looking for work lately and it’s bleak out there and because I’m a “glass half-empty” kind of gal, it started me thinking about rejection. I haven’t had the chance to be rejected (or accepted) since I’ve not been asked to interview for any positions to which I’ve applied. Rejection stirs up all kinds of bad feelings. No matter how confident you are, your self-esteem takes a hit.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “Before They were Titans, Moguls and Newsmakers, These People were…Rejected,” by Sue Shellenbarger examined how successful people, including Ted Turner, Tom Brokaw and Warren Buffet, responded to being rejected by their first college of choice. Often, after receiving that rejection, going to a different school led them to their eventual career path. In fact, some of their most impressive achievements can be traced back to that early rejection. Shellenbarger quotes Buffet, who was rejected by Harvard Business School at 19, “The truth is, everything that has happened in my life…that I thought was a crushing event at the time, has turned out for the better. You learn that a temporary defeat is not a permanent one. In the end, it can be an opportunity.”
Personally, I didn’t have the experience of being rejected from a prestigious university. I never applied to any since my parents had a “state-school” budget. But I did experience a major career-changing event as the result of a rejection. When I was not picked to take over an advertising department when my boss left, I pouted for awhile, then found volunteer work on a suicide hotline. That led to going back to school to get my Masters in social work and I’ve been in the field for twenty years.
So if you or your kids are starting to receive rejection letters from colleges, remember that it might just be the start of taking a new path.
So, how has rejection shaped your career or life’s direction?
This is a post by Nancy LaFever. This post is liked by business degree ontario.
Leave a Reply