How To Overcome Rejection and Turn It Into Power

Photo by Daniel Páscoa on Unsplash

Over the past few weeks, all the articles I pitched to online publications got rejected.

All the influencers I reached out to have either declined my proposals for collaboration or said nothing at all. My Youtube channel gained a dazzling total of 9 subscribers, and I got more negative responses to my articles on Medium than ever before.

I have long ago accepted the fact that stuff like building a business or pursuing my dreams takes a lot of effort — as well as the occasional moments of despair. However, the thought that has kept me from doing things in fear of being rejected for most of my life was this:

“What will other people think?”

What worried me the most about failing in business or getting rejected by my crush was the way other people would perceive me — the thought of having someone seeing me fall felt worse than the pain caused by the fall itself.

For a long time, however, I didn’t even know I felt that way. I thought I didn’t care about other people’s opinions, and when I heard of books like The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck I felt a sense of relief inside me that said “Now there’s something I don’t need to read. At least I’ve got that covered.”