In Business, Don’t Confuse Rejection, Failure

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One of my senior staffers recently began working on business development for our company, which means he calls potential clients to convince them to learn more about us and hopefully to buy.

So far, I’m impressed.

His manner is approachable and authoritative, which makes people comfortable believing what he has to say. Almost as important, he doesn’t let rejection get him down.

His resilience comes from innate confidence that a certain amount of rejection is part of any ambitious task. He also knows that one customer’s “no” doesn’t have any bearing on our likely success with other prospects.

Lots of home-based business owners could benefit by taking a leaf from my staff member’s book. Often, home-based business owners feel discouraged when faced with rejection because working alone doesn’t provide a support network to maintain a positive attitude. No one is there to laugh with about a rebuff or to confide in about fears. Left to fester, these feelings take on more weight.

If you run the risk of losing your resilience when faced with rejection, use these tips to restore your drive to succeed.

– Maintain perspective. When you confront rejection in the business world, giving it more weight than it deserves can be easy. Two common pitfalls are taking things personally or letting one bad experience “globalize” the likelihood for your overall success, worth, etc.

To avoid these perils, remember that rejection is a normal part of work life, rather than a sign of impending doom. Deals and relationships don’t succeed for a variety of reasons.

– Try again. Rejection produces emotions that often align with the clich & #233;, “once bitten, twice shy.” Failing at a task once leaves many people fearful that they will fail again. Do everything to suppress this negative thinking because it will encourage a self-fulfilling prophecy if you believe a situation will turn out poorly, it probably will.

– Talk about it. Find someone to talk with about a rejection. It can be a family member, a friend or another entrepreneur. The perspective he or she offers may help you see the event objectively, and perhaps even humorously.

– View failure as success. Getting rejected means that you’ve put yourself in the line of fire, which is an accomplishment in its own right. It is a sign of initiative and a reflection of your ability to push forward in the face of adversity.

– Learn from it. If hindsight uncovers possible reasons for the rejection you’ve faced, evaluate changes you can make that will prevent the same outcome in the future. Rejection that results in improvement becomes a valuable learning tool. In addition, putting a plan of action in place will prevent you from belaboring the setback that occurred.

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