To achieve great things in life, we must overcome enormous challenges. One of the huddles great leaders – people that God uses to initiate constructive life-changes for their people – must overcome on the road to success is rejection. At some stage all great leaders must be alienated, disappointed, cheated upon, and betrayed. That is why all leaders are pretty skilled at handling rejection. You must also learn to deal with rejection if you want to achieve success.
The best solution to rejection is endurance – keeping on doing what you think is right at any cost! Nonetheless, endurance is a mental stamina that stems from understanding the following facts.
Rejection is a natural and necessary ingredient of success. Just as water is an important part of blood rejection is a major component of success. When you get a rejection you should rejoice because you have just got one of the major components of success. In this case, the rejection is not a curse but a true blessing in disguise.
The size of rejection is always proportionate to the size of achievement; the greater the potential achievement the greater the rejection. So when you encounter stiff opposition you should be excited that what you are carrying is great.
Rejection is resistance to change. It is a conflict between the old and the new. Rejection is a struggle between the problem and the solution. Naturally rejection occurs when the status quo feels threatened by change and refuses to give way. This is because change (solution) is a natural replacement for the status quo (problem). The two can’t co-exist. The introduction of a solution naturally means death to a problem. For this reason, the problem will always fight the solution. So opposition from the status quo is a sign that you have pushed the right button.
Opponents who benefit from the existing problem will naturally reject any solution to the problem. (by opponents I mean more than people or external entities. They include one’s own existing belief systems, traditions and habits). That is why when you introduce a solution your opponents will fight you not because you are wrong but because you are right. Rejection, as said earlier, is a blessing because it gives you a clue that you have the correct solution to the problem you are trying to solve. So instead of being put off by rejection, you must be encouraged by it to keep on doing what you are doing. As Sylvester Stallone once said, take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in your ear to wake you up and get going, rather than retreat.
Sometimes you might encounter rejection even from the people who care much about you because they fear what you are doing will bring unknown pain. Mediocre people fear change because change, no matter how beneficial it turns out to be, carries with it the uncomfortable fear of the unknown. Naturally when asked to try something different many of us take the challenge with great caution. This is explained by the fact that at the back of our minds we know that untried things are potentially harmful.
Lack of experience is a recipe for fear. The only way to defuse fear of the unknown is testing the unknown. Leaders learn by daring, but followers learn by copying. Ordinary people are convinced by results not by ideas or words. They want to look at tangible results before they can follow.
Leadership is a lone adventure. If you are scared of being left alone chances are you will not enjoy your stay at the top should you get there. Nevertheless, my prayer for you is that you will find the courage to break new grounds and keep on doing what you truly believe to be the right thing until you win.
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