I Just Got Rejected

Wired into me is a deep desire to make an impact in the world, and one of the ways I’m seeking to do that is by leading a campaign called New Year For Good. It’s a fundraiser for charity where I partner with influencers with massive followings, build a New Year Challenge for them for free, and we sell it to their audience and donate every dollar to charity. 

For months I’ve been hustling to open doors and establish connections with influential partners, and my most recent attempt backfired pretty bad. I got blatantly rejected.

The story is: I took a redeye flight last Wednesday night for a happy hour Thursday evening, then traveled home all day Friday. And it was primarily to meet one particular person who’s an ideal partner for this charitable campaign. We’ve been in touch for years and mutually supportive of each other, we had been emailing back and forth as recently as the previous week trying to coordinate a time to chat about collaborating, and I figured that showing up in person would be a great way to accelerate things. 

However, at the event when I saw her and introduced myself to her for the first time in person, she had no idea who I was. And after explaining our history, our recent emails, and how she even introduced me to the person who was coordinating the event we were at, I got the sense that she had no interest to learn who I was. It was a quick and disappointing encounter.

About an hour later after she had settled in more, I went to speak with her again and had a little more time. It was awkward, I stumbled over my words trying to establish any type of connection with her, and she was hardly responsive. I even gave her a small but thoughtful gift, and it didn’t seem to land. 

I’m not sharing this to villianize this woman. I deeply believe in what she’s doing and will continue to support her. My intention is to share the way I’m processing this personal experience with rejection.

I spent half a day preparing for my conversation with her, a day and a half traveling away from home, and a few hundred dollars for this opportunity - just to completely fumble the opportunity.

Did it sting? Oh ya. But am I going to let it weigh me down? Not a chance.

Showing up without notice was a big and bold move, and one that I’ll learn from. But what I realize is, you need to take big swings if you want to achieve big results. When you take a swing, you risk missing the ball. When you put yourself out there and aggressively pursue what you want, there’s a chance you get rejected. 

And while there are many things I’d do differently the next time I attempt something like this, I’m not going to let this experience keep me from trying. I’m actually fired up about it because now I have this story. Now I have this personal example I can lean on the next time a big idea doesn’t pan out. Because it will help me take bigger and better swings. And I hope the same for you.