Rejection is denial by a person or people you expect support from in a quest, vision or pursuit. Rejection can be demoralising and devastating. As bad as it may be, depends on how you handle rejection, it cannot deterred you from achieving in life. Many people the world over have received rejection in one form or the other. While others resigned themselves to self pity, others have gone ahead to achieve what they wanted to achieved. In 1894, a sixteen year old found this not from his rhetoric teacher at Harrow, in England, attached to his report card: “A conspicuous lack of success”. The young man rejected the rejection and went on to become one of the most famous speakers of the twentieth century. His name is Winston Churchill.
In 1902, an aspiring young writer received a rejection letter from the poetry editor of a monthly magazine. Enclosed with the sheet of poems, the 28-year old poet had sent was this curt not: “our magazine has no room for your vigorous verse”. He rejected the rejection and went on to see his work published. His name is Robert Frost.
In 1905, the University of Berlin turned down a Ph.D thesis as being fanciful and irrelevant. The young physics student, who wrote the thesis rejected their rejection and went on to develop some of his “fanciful ideas” into widely accepted theories. His name is Albert Einstein.
Robert Chesebrough had a product which he believed in whole-heartedly. In fact, it was his own invention. Chesebrough had transformed the ooze that foams on shafts of oil rigs – rod wax, into a petroleum jelly that he personally found to have great healing properties. He believed so much in the healing components of his findings that he became his own experimental tool. To demonstrate the benefits of his product for others, Chesebrough burned himself with acid and flame and cut and scratched himself so often and so deeply that he bore scars of his tests for his entire life.
Nevertheless, Chesebrough proved his point and people were convinced. They only had to look at Chesebrough’s wounds and how they healed to see the value of his product, which is still an international bestseller. We know it as Vaseline.
When the idea of iron ships was proposed, experts insisted that they would not float, would damage more easily than wooden ships when grounding, that it would be difficult to preserve the iron bottom from rust, and that iron would play havoc with compass readings.
Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) was also rejected 1,009 times before he heard his first yes.
Walt Disney was rejected 302 times before he got the finance for his dream of creating ‘the happiest place on earth’. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas.
Soichiro Honda was advised not to go into motorcycle manufacturing, rather, he was advised to set up a machine workshop. He refused! Today Honda cars are one of the best brands you can find anywhere in the world.
When Samuel Morse announced his system for communication by telegraph, the world scoffed at him. And the world scoffed at Marconi too when he announced the perfection of an improvement over Morse’s system; a system of communication by wireless technology.
The discovery of the modern radio, one of the “miracles” of human ingenuity, which was destined to make the whole world akin was accepted as a toy to amuse children, but nothing more.
Thomas A. Edison came in for ridicule when he announced his perfection of the incandescent electric light bulb. Edison teacher said he was too stupid to learn anything.
The first auto-maker, Henry Ford met with the same experience when he offered the world a self-propelled vehicle to take the place of the horse.
When Wilbur and Orville Wright announced the flight of a practical flying machine, the world was so little impressed that newspaper refused to witness a demonstration of the machine. In fact, Marshall Foch, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in France in World War I, watched the demonstration and said, “All very well for sports, but it is no use whatsoever to the Army”.
Benjamin Franklin was told by “experts” to stop all the foolish experimenting with lightning. An “expert” said of Vince Lombardi: “he possess minimal football knowledge and lacks motivation”.
Socrates was called, “An immoral corrupter of youth”. Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him hopeless as a composer.
Charles Darwin, father of the theory of Evolution, gave up a medical career and was told by his father, “you care for nothing but shooting dogs and catching rats”. In his autobiography, Darwin wrote, “I was considered by all my masters and my father, a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard in intellect”.
Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four years old and didn’t read until he was seven. His teacher described him as “mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams”. He was expelled and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School.
Isaac Newton did very poorly in grade school.
Eighteen publishers turned down Richard Bach’s 10,000 word story about a “Soaring” seagull, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, before Macmillan finally published it in 1970. By 1975, it had sold more than 7 million copies in the U.S. alone.
“It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA” – that was the comment about George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Dr. Abalaka AIDS cure was described by many Nigerians as a “cheap claim”. Many of those who were describing the cure as cheap claim are either taking the drugs themselves or their relatives.
Are you a type of person that when you are rejected by people, you go home to cry? Reject that rejection. Nobody appreciate an image an artist has in his mind until when he is finished, then, everybody would wants to pay thousand of dollars to owned it.
Reject the rejection you may receive today, and go on to achieve the real achievement. No matter how harsh or stinging the sarcasm demonstrated about your original ideas, pursue them further. Take them to their logical end. The same people that reject you today, we be there to celebrate your victory if you press on.
APOLOGY TO MY ESTEEM READERS
I'm really very sorry for been absent for a long time, I had a community assignment that took longer than I expected. But now, I'm back! We can always meet here once again.
Thanks for being here always.
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