‘you have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.’
-ray bradbury
‘so this is the new year and i don’t feel any different’ (-DCFC), actually a lot has happened in 2008. A LOT.
this blog is simply a suggestion for those in need of new years resolution, or those who need another one to add to the list of things to change or improve on in the next 365 days. or 16 days, or 3 depending on your self discipline.
i heard a story recently (whether it was true or not i could not figure out but i did check out several websites that reverberated the same story) about producer Steven Spielburg and how he got his start by wondering off of tour on the universal studio’s lot and started meeting people and making connections which began his career.
that got me thinking, how much guts it had to take to knowingly sign up for the tour knowing full well that you just want to sneak off and begin a career even though your probably breaking the tour rules, and perhaps breaking a few laws in the process.
but whats the worst that could happen? honestly. who cares if people say no, at the end of the day what does it matter. rejection doesn’t hurt so bad when you look back in time and analyze all the success that simply asking will gain you.
so this upcoming year all i am asking is that you simply try. i know it sounds easy, but its not because sometimes it hurts to hear no. but what if, just what if there is a yes to be found amongst the no.
take a chance as ask him/her, talk to your boss about that new position, apply to that college you don’t think you have a chance at, plan that trip and worry about how to get another job to pay for it later, apply to another bigger better job you have always dreamed of, ask that person if they want to start a band, send out your poetry to see if the new yorker will publish it.
and then what: a no from someone you may never see or hear from again? a person that is simply on the other line of the phone that you may never meet? and WHO CARES! life is to short to worry more about rejection than lavish in the possibilities that simply asking a simple question might bring.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
DONT BE AMONG THE COLD AND TIMID SOULS, RESOLVE TO SIMPLY ASK, PROMISE YOURSELF THAT AT THE END OF THE DAY THE WORD ‘NO’ IS HARMLESS.
-stephen
