How to deal with failures and rejections?
When we try something new, we are ought to fail. This is true that failure is a part of life. A failure is not even a failure when you learn from it and grow from it. Success and failure are nothing but states of mind. Life is an unfair game, we need to learn how to deal with failures and rejections if we are to get somewhere. Let's begin with a short story.
At age sixty-seven, Thomas Edison returned home early one evening from his work for dinner with his family. He was then America’s most famous inventor, enjoying his eminence and financial success. But this tranquility was threatened permanently that evening when, as he finished eating, a man came rushing into his house with urgent news: A fire had broken out at Edison’s research and production campus a few miles away.
Fire engines from eight nearby towns rushed to the scene, but they could not contain the blaze. Fueled by the strange chemicals in the various buildings, green and yellow flames shot up six and seven stories, threatening to destroy the empire Edison had spent his life building.
Yet despair was not the reaction that Edison turned to. He did not weep. He did not rage. He did not throw himself into the flames.
Instead, he got to work. He told a reporter the next day that he wasn’t too old to make a fresh start, “I’ve been through a lot of things like this.
The fire that destroyed his life’s work actually invigorated him.
Marcus Aurelius would write that “a blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.” That’s what Edison did. Faced with an enormous obstacle that would have devastated other mortals, he absorbed—burned it for fuel—and was made better for it.
Within about three weeks of the fire, Edison’s factory was partially back up and running (thanks in part to a loan from his friend Henry Ford). Within a month, its men were working two shifts a day churning new products the world had never seen. Despite a loss of almost one million dollars (more than $23 million in today’s dollars), Edison would marshal enough energy to make nearly ten million dollars in revenue that year ($200 plus million today). He took a spectacular disaster, and turned it into the spectacular final act of his life.
This is true in all situations, most of what happens to us in life is not in our control, but how we respond to it is totally within our control.
Whenever something bad happens to you, just say these words to yourself, "nothing bad can really happen—there is only fuel. That everything I face can be of some purpose."
Near the end of his life, Theodore Roosevelt fell ill and a doctor told him he’d likely be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his days. His response? “Alright I can work with that!” Notice the exclamation mark. He was cheerful about it. He leaned into it (and as it happens, was up walking around soon enough.)
We don’t get to choose so much of happens to us in life—whether we’re in a wheelchair or staring at the burnt out wreckage of our factory—but we can always choose how we feel about it, whether we’re going to work with it or not. Why on earth would you choose to feel anything but good? Why would you choose not to work with it? What would that accomplish?
Again, learning to accept what we can’t change is one thing. It’s hard enough, impressive enough, but after understanding that certain things—particularly bad things—are outside our control, is this: loving whatever happens to us and facing it with unfailing cheerfulness. Because that is what we control and it is a great, powerful force.
It only looks at what’s happening with enough strength to say, “I have what it takes to make this good for me.” It spends nothing on bitterness or blame, and puts everything towards gratitude.
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Source: www.Observer.com
At age sixty-seven, Thomas Edison returned home early one evening from his work for dinner with his family. He was then America’s most famous inventor, enjoying his eminence and financial success. But this tranquility was threatened permanently that evening when, as he finished eating, a man came rushing into his house with urgent news: A fire had broken out at Edison’s research and production campus a few miles away.
Fire engines from eight nearby towns rushed to the scene, but they could not contain the blaze. Fueled by the strange chemicals in the various buildings, green and yellow flames shot up six and seven stories, threatening to destroy the empire Edison had spent his life building.
Edison calmly but quickly made his way to the fire, through the now hundreds of onlookers and devastated employees. Finding his son standing at the scene, Edison would utter these famous words: “Go get your mother and all her friends. They’ll never see a fire like this again.”
What?!
Don’t worry, Edison calmed him. “It’s all right. We’ve just got rid of a lot of rubbish.”
That’s a pretty amazing reaction. Insane even.
Years and years of priceless records, prototypes, and research were turned to ash. The buildings, which had been made of what was supposedly fire-proofed concrete, had been insured for only a fraction of their worth.
Yet despair was not the reaction that Edison turned to. He did not weep. He did not rage. He did not throw himself into the flames.
Instead, he got to work. He told a reporter the next day that he wasn’t too old to make a fresh start, “I’ve been through a lot of things like this.
The fire that destroyed his life’s work actually invigorated him.
Marcus Aurelius would write that “a blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.” That’s what Edison did. Faced with an enormous obstacle that would have devastated other mortals, he absorbed—burned it for fuel—and was made better for it.
Within about three weeks of the fire, Edison’s factory was partially back up and running (thanks in part to a loan from his friend Henry Ford). Within a month, its men were working two shifts a day churning new products the world had never seen. Despite a loss of almost one million dollars (more than $23 million in today’s dollars), Edison would marshal enough energy to make nearly ten million dollars in revenue that year ($200 plus million today). He took a spectacular disaster, and turned it into the spectacular final act of his life.
This is true in all situations, most of what happens to us in life is not in our control, but how we respond to it is totally within our control.
Whenever something bad happens to you, just say these words to yourself, "nothing bad can really happen—there is only fuel. That everything I face can be of some purpose."
Near the end of his life, Theodore Roosevelt fell ill and a doctor told him he’d likely be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his days. His response? “Alright I can work with that!” Notice the exclamation mark. He was cheerful about it. He leaned into it (and as it happens, was up walking around soon enough.)
We don’t get to choose so much of happens to us in life—whether we’re in a wheelchair or staring at the burnt out wreckage of our factory—but we can always choose how we feel about it, whether we’re going to work with it or not. Why on earth would you choose to feel anything but good? Why would you choose not to work with it? What would that accomplish?
Again, learning to accept what we can’t change is one thing. It’s hard enough, impressive enough, but after understanding that certain things—particularly bad things—are outside our control, is this: loving whatever happens to us and facing it with unfailing cheerfulness. Because that is what we control and it is a great, powerful force.
It only looks at what’s happening with enough strength to say, “I have what it takes to make this good for me.” It spends nothing on bitterness or blame, and puts everything towards gratitude.
If you want to stay updated with the latest blog post then hit the follow icon. If you find value in this article then do share it with your friends and family. Comment your views and opinions on this topic in the comment section below.
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