Denis Waitley: Overcoming Rejection

Face it: Rejection is inevitable on the sales trail. And to succeed in sales, we've got to learn to deal with it. Here's the how-to from Denis Waitley, author of Empires of the Mind (William Morrow) and Seeds of Greatness (Pocket Books).

Entrepreneur: Have you ever been rejected?

Waitley: Many times. I'm learning how to treat it as a rejection of my performance and presentation rather than a rejection of me. It's very important to accept rejection--it provides a chance for us to do targeted corrections. So I accept it as a stepping stone, not a stumbling block. It's a learning experience--a way to figure out how to improve my performance so that next time, I get an acceptance.

Entrepreneur: Isn't rejection often random--there is, in fact, no good reason why we weren't accepted?

Waitley: That's true. We attach a lot of emotion to rejection, but often the person has selected another source simply because the alternative happened to come along at the time the decision got made.

I look at it this way: If there are opportunities out there where selections are made at random, I want to have as much exposure as possible. As the saying goes, luck is the intersection of opportunity and preparation, so if you're out there, you will be much more apt to benefit from luck.

Entrepreneur: All that said, doesn't rejection sting?

Waitley: Rejection still hurts. It's human nature. But I've found the entrepreneurs who are successful have already decided to be happy no matter how many times they were rejected. They just plowed right through the rejections until they won acceptance.

--R.M.