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100 Rejections
A while back, I was delivering wedding welcome gifts to a few hotels around DC and Northern Virginia, so I had a few hours (!) alone (!) to listen to podcasts.
I binged on Adam Grant’s Work Life podcast (he wrote this amazing book and this one to) and honestly they were all great, but the one that stuck out the most was his episode on rejection.
He featured this comedian whose career wasn’t going anywhere, until she decided to set a goal to get rejected 100 times in 2018. For some reason, framing reaching out to The New Yorker from “oh I’m not smart enough for that” to “well, let’s go grab another of my 100 rejections” was a game changer! She started applying and reaching out to everyone- I mean why not???
Whoa- for some reason I immediately realized that for me, this was the best idea ever. Whether it’s the cold-intro business emails, or the probably-too-famous-for-me influencer outreach, or the pitch to the big brand, I tend to procrastinate on sending the big, hairy emails that I know will probably end up getting a “no.” Or, let’s be real, crickets. I tell myself that I need a prettier attachment, or a better offer, or something… but I’m really just dragging my feet.
But yesterday, I sat down to work and ended up working for 7 hours straight just blasting off a zillion emails (I mean, I proof read them and wrote them carefully, let’s not get too crazy here!!)
I was FREE! I was just collecting my 100 rejections!
I’m totally addicted. I got one pretty hilariously harsh no, but I got FOUR yeses, two of which totally SHOCKED me!!! One of which got a response that could change everything! (Honestly that good of a ratio just tells me that I need to aim even higher and be even more audacious with what I’m working at).
I ended up waking up in the middle of the night last night to send more while-we’re-talking-crazy-dreams-here emails.
And now that I’m wrapping up this email, off I go to get rejected some more. 🙂 I can’t wait!!
Go gather some of your 100!
xx,
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