Overcoming Rejection

As I entered this journey of entrepreneurship via the world of Network Marking, I never imagined the eye opening lessons I would learn.  One quickly comes to the realization that there is more than one YOU!  As funny as that may sound, listen closely.  There is a YOU that casts a reflection in the mirror that you look at and admire every morning ( … or maybe not) and then there is a YOU that casts a reflection and perception through the eyes of your peers.  This is where I struggled.
Your peers may see you completely differently from the “man or woman in the mirror”.  You may believe yourself to be one of good faith, loyalty and possessing a spirit to bless and help others.  However, your peers may see you as self-absorbed, over-confident and judgmental.   The very strengths that you think you possess and admire within yourself can be looked upon and envied by your closest peers.  Coming to this realization quickly isn’t such a bad thing.  If we are to be successful in life, we must constantly learn and reinvent ourselves.  Not to the point that we are always starting from scratch, but to the point where we are constantly learning and evolving.  This leads us to the “Rejection Factor”!
Rejection is hard to overcome.  Just because we see a vision and want to share it with others, does not mean they will see the vision as well.  In our minds, we are thinking “How can you be so STUPID”!  But we must understand that it is our job to help them learn, adapt and become knowledgeable to new things the same way our parents introduced new things to us.  We are all babies when it comes to new adventures and experiences and the best thing you can do is be a coach for those willing to learn.  The closest and dearest friends of yours will jump in a car with you and ride across the world, but will hop off the ride the second you veer somewhere you’ve never been before or do what is considered “abnormal”.  Network Marketing is indeed abnormal to most of us who have been conditioned to “live the dream”.   Live the dream of getting a diploma, going into corporate America and working years of your life away to build a company that you may never own or that may never pay you your worth.  A company that at the drop of a dime (literally when the economy fails us) will lay you off and tell you they have decided to go in another direction.
When we have lived so many years of this life in this environment, it is no wonder why our peers have a hard time seeing OUR vision.  We are often rejected by our closet peers because they are One, comfortable in their life and Two, not comfortable enough to trust you/us with their financial well-being.  We will solicit a stranger before we will do business with someone right under our noses.  Why?, because it is innate in us to not want to see someone surpass us or “do better” than we are doing.  A stranger comes and goes, but a friend is right there for you to view his or her success or failure.
This rejection is something we must learn to overcome!  We have to understand where the rejection comes from.  Is it that they don’t trust us or believe in us?  Is it that they don’t believe in your decision making?  Is it lack of support?  Or is it simply that they don’t have the capacity or means to see past the end of their arm?  Overcoming rejection is a must because there are lessons to be learned.
I observed a homeless guy for several weeks on my way to work each day.  Some days I would roll my window down and hand him a few dollars.  Some days I wouldn’t look up at him, but would observe his expression as others donated to him or rejected him.  I wondered more and more how it felt to be in that position.  But there was a lesson to be learned.  Why would this homeless guy risk the rejection each and every day?  Why would he have an undaunted spirit to walk from car to car facing more NOs than YESes?  It is then that you realize that his PURPOSE and his WHY is much bigger than any NO that he will encounter.  His focus is totally on the positive outcomes and not the negativity he faces to get there.  Whether it is to eat, to have a warm place to stay or to put provide for someone who is depending on him, he has NO CONCERN FOR REJECTION!  It is this mindset that makes us successful and powerful.  This mindset used in the right manner will allow us to overcome rejection and unlock the doors to success.  When looking at this homeless man, I wondered to myself … Why does it take these conditions and circumstances for us to develop this mindset?  Well I’m here to tell you it doesn’t.  We can control many of our circumstances if we follow things that have already been put in place.  Constantly evolving, tweaking our circles and understanding how to overcome rejection is crucial in our paths to success!
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