If you are a person who is not easily able to take rejection personally, then you need to re-think what you're doing. Taking rejection personally is the number one reason why so many people fail in business. They either think that they don't have the skills needed to do whatever it is that they are trying to do, or they don't have the ability to tell their boss "no". Rejection has a way of making us feel that we are inadequate.
I've learned that rejection is meant to test us. It shouldn't be taken personally; that's just how the world works. We get rejected for a reason (unless you are working in a very open environment where you can easily be rejected) and then we have to learn how to deal with that reason effectively. You don't have to take rejection personally, but I do suggest that you learn to better understand it.
There is a difference between being rejected and being embarrassed. Embarrassed usually comes from a situation where we were careless, wrong or made a mistake that the customer found unacceptable. The customer may have had a negative experience with a similar product somewhere else and wasn't feeling positive about buying from us. When this happens, they might call you up and ask if you'd like to come work for them at their place. This is a simple example of how a rejection can impact us emotionally. However, when a rejection feels like a kick in the behind, we can't help but feel discouraged and down.
We might start to question ourselves, what did we do wrong? What makes us qualified for that job, how can we make our skills better so we can get the position? These are all questions that we should be asking ourselves when we're faced with rejection, instead of focusing on what the person thought was wrong with us.
A person shouldn't try and take rejection personally, even if the person says they feel that they deserved it. If you have taken rejection personally before and been embarrassed or angry, then you have nothing to be ashamed of. Remember that we are all individuals with different experiences. If we take rejection personally, then we will never learn from our past mistakes and will continue to make the same ones.
Rejection happens for a variety of reasons. Sometimes we are doing something that the other person can't relate to, or isn't interested in. Sometimes people get a bit nervous when it comes time to pitch an idea to a group of people, or they have a hard time determining whether they have done a good job explaining their idea. In some cases, we simply don't know what to do with our product. Whatever the reason, the important thing is that we learn from our mistakes and move forward.
Another important step to learning from our rejection is to remember why we're doing it. Sometimes we will simply choose not to move on because we feel that our product isn't good enough, or that we're afraid of losing the person we're trying to work with. If this is the case, then take a step back and analyze why you made the decision. Did you come up with the idea in the first place because you're passionate about your topic?
Did you carefully analyze the rejection felt and decide that it was the best option for your situation? Did you put a lot of thought into your presentation and the way it ended? If so, then you have a much better chance of handling the next rejection. This will help you avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
