Writing is hard, and here I am giving it a go.
@MorolongZA “.founders/ entrepreneurs, how do you handle and manage rejection?”
Oh! rejection, an old dear friend.
I have been in spaces where I felt deserving of a chance and got rejected. Beyond business and in real life we all go through such moments. We prepare and give it everything. We give preparation to the opportunity only to be left at the door. We fall short of a breakthrough, a sharp piercing needle down our chest. We swallow blood, it tastes like failure. We look down and with all the many renditions of how much we practiced, how much we prepared it’s a dark moment.
Rejection no matter how we recover never feels great. It never becomes normal, at least only if you care about what you do. But it’s because of the fact we care about ourselves and what we do enough that it should feel painful. It’s the reminder that we care, the validation we are self-aware. It’s a sign what was presented before you are worthwhile and you were present. To shield ourselves from rejection is to become ignorant. It’s to not care. It’s to be complacent. It’s a slippery slope, downhill. It’s inviting failure than it is to feel it.
My view of rejection has evolved. You go through enough to learn it's less a judgment and more like a yardstick. Rejection is the measure of how much I was wanting. It’s the metric of what I should overcome, but it’s the undesirable outcome. It’s relative to the pool and those I put myself in front of. It means I’m not yet ready, in some cases it means they are not ready. Rejection is the answer to the view I never prepared for, it’s the feedback I would have never had. It’s the encouragement I need or the moment to reflect. It’s how I choose to feel about it. It's also what it reflects in the message. But It should never be sweet. I should always know how bitter it is.
Rejection is the lemon, I need it. But I need it less than I need water. Because it’s always lurking when next I prepare I should give it my all.
First published on Substack.