Don’t Personalize Rejection

Always try to be open to constructive criticism, but don’t personalize rejection. Don’t allow your opinion of yourself to be coloured by the opinion of those who fail to see your best qualities and potential. Successful people all have one thing in common: they had to overcome rejection. In 1902, an aspiring young writer received a rejection letter from the poetry editor of The Atlantic Monthly. Enclosed with a sheaf of poems the twenty-eight-year-old poet had sent them was this curt note: “Our magazine has no room for your vigorous verse.” Yet he became one of the most beloved and popular American poets of all time. Who was he? Robert Frost. In 1907, the University of Bern turned down a PhD dissertation from a young physics student. Yet that student went on to change the scientific world forever. Who was he? Albert Einstein. When a sixteen-year-old student got his report card from his rhetoric teacher in school, there was a note attached that read, “A conspicuous lack of success.” But he refused to accept it. Who was he? Winston Churchill. After the list of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11:34, we read, “Whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle.” That can be your story too. David, who experienced spectacular failure in life, wrote, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped” (Psalm 28:7). The only people who can let you down are the people you lean on. So lean less on people and more on God.