Rejection is just a part of life in business. It doesn’t matter if you are a salesman, an entrepreneur or a project manager. We hate to have our ideas rejected. We tend to take it personally.
Often times, many of us will receive a lot of hollow reassurance. Things like “Ah, don’t worry about it. You’re awesome and you know it!” or “Hey, it’s their loss, right?”. That can act as a balm to hurt pride, but it really doesn’t mean anything.
Don’t take the bait that comes along with thinking, “No problem, I’ll just press onward” and leave it at that. It’s always a good idea to get back on the horse, but don’t let an opportunity like rejection pass you by.
Leverage Your Opportunities
Rejections are amazing opportunities to learn more about yourself. We typically take on a very subjective outlook of the work. Unless we as professionals work very hard to get an external view of ourselves, we may never correct critical flaws.
Take the opportunity to really analyze what happened. Can you pinpoint reasons for what happened? Did you discover what triggered the opinion? Did you probe for answers? Was I specific enough? Did I convey the wrong message?
These are the types of questions that you will need to begin asking to learn how to see where you may have weak spots. These are how experts are developed. Craftsmen spend time honing their craft by correcting mistakes in the pursuit of a more perfect result. Business professionals are no different.
People who don’t spend time critically assessing weaknesses will eventually be passed by those that do.
