Rejection Will Not Deter Me
By Jaudia
I am empowered and poised because I do not buckle at the word “no”.
No human being with a beating heart is unaffected by rejection. Unfortunately, it is a regular part of life, and because we cannot always control what happens to us, we in turn can control our response. Over the years, hearing “no” has helped me build thicker skin. I think it’s actually fueled my fire even more to keep trying. When I see a sign of “no”, to me it just means not yet, or not in that way. When many people would get discouraged, I get determined.
My guidance counselor in high school encouraged me to go to a community college and then transfer to a state school. I want to preface this by saying there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, that is not my story. I dreamed of going away to school; getting an education from a well-known school where I could explore and grow and meet people from all over the world. My guidance counselor was supposed to be my champion, and yet he discouraged me from thinking too big. I pushed for his recommendation letter anyway and applied to schools like Fordham and NYU. I was accepted to both. I was all ready to go to NYU when my Cornell University acceptance letter rolled in. Imagine if I would have listened. When I get something in my head I do not give up.
When I was graduating from college as an anthropology major, the recruiters for HR positions would only interview students from the Industrial Labor Relations college and would not allow me to sign up for slots. I still remember a recruiter from Goodyear saying that my crossover just did not make sense. He listened to me explain how I studied how people organize themselves within structures, i.e. the workplace. He admitted my thought process aligned but that they were only interviewing students from that specific college within my university. I remember being so frustrated, feeling like no one got what I thought made perfect sense. So, I graduated thinking I’d have to end up going back to school and get a degree in HR to get into the field. I ended up working in claims at Progressive and working with an amazing HR Consultant who answered all my questions and supported all of my interests. He set up an informational meeting with the HR team and I ended up walking out with an offer. No further degree needed. Again, what if I had given up after being told no?
Then, eventually I decided I was going to quit my stable corporate job with great pay to go work for a startup doing something I knew zero about. I felt it, I was supposed to make that leap. I did not tell many people what I was planning because I was afraid I would get talked out of it. But honestly, it was only the voice in my head telling me I could not do it. Sometimes the discouraging naysayer is you. But even when you are holding yourself back, surrounding yourself with a support system who encourages you can really help. I told a coworker and my mother that I was thinking about quitting, and I expected both to validate my negative self-talk and they didn’t. They believed in me and now I had no excuses so I took the leap. Knowing my journey with LaunchHouse, I cannot imagine if I had listened and stayed where I was. I now have creative autonomy, control massive expansion projects, and manage a team of awesome people.
None of our paths are linear. If you talk to anyone you admire, you will hear that their stories are full of exciting twists and turns. And some will tell you they just fell into what they’re doing and just kept moving forward. I would rather live a life of “oops, try again” than a life of wondering what could have happened. We all face rejection, but who you will become depends on how you regroup and plan a way around it.
