Rejection Reflection - How To Use Past Rejection To Propel Forward

I was rejected - turned down to get my songs published in 1994. In 2017, I was turned down again for newer, different music. With no success,  I decided I just wasn't cut out for this business. Had I reflected at all on what happened in 94, I would have been in a much more solid position in 2017 -but I never analyzed what happened. Here's what I learned. 

I'm in the process of doing an in-depth book review of Rejection Proof by Jia Jiang. The past couple of weeks is it has me reflecting on some of my past rejections and how they stunted my growth as an entrepreneur, but also some ways that those rejections have helped me 26 years ago, when I was 21 years old, I wrote three Christian songs. My parents bought me a, it was one of those public TV auctions, and somebody was giving away recording studio time. My parents bought it for me and I went and recorded these songs in a professional studio. That was my first studio experience and I loved it. So I got the songs. I brought them home. I had the tape, I made copies of the tape and I went and got the writer's digest for songwriters.

I created some nice little folder packages, and I sent the tapes of my recordings to about 10 publishers after doing some research in that guide over the next few weeks, I got three rejection letters in the mail and never heard back from the other seven. The rejection letters went, something like this, sorry, you're not, this is not what we were looking for. And I took that to mean you suck after being rejected. I decided I just wasn't cut out to be a songwriter. I gave up and started looking at other avenues that I could take to make money with my music in his book. Your next five moves. Patrick bet. David said, if you're going to lose, don't lose the lesson. But back then I was 21. I was foolish and I lost the lesson. I should have reflected, but I just didn't know enough.

At that young age, I wasn't hanging out with the right people. I was pretty reserved. So I didn't really about my problems or my emotions all that much. And I didn't seek any outside counsel. I didn't ask my parents. I didn't ask my pastor. I didn't ask anybody that I knew how to resolve this. I just decided I must suck as a songwriter. My first three songs that I ever wrote got rejected. So I've got to find something else to do. Had I sought out counsel, I would have hoped that they would have said something similar to what I would tell people today, which is that you continue writing music, continue submitting to publishers, call the publishers and songwriters and other people in the industry to find out how to do this, how to get this done, what skills do you need to learn in order to make it, and then go learn those skills and you keep trying and you keep figuring it out.

But back then, it was a lot easier for me just to say, I'm just not cut out to be a songwriter. And I did that after only three rejections. Here's a side note. It's really weird when I'm talking about past regrets and changing the past. Because at this point I love my life. I love where I am and I love where it's life has taken me to this point. So to go back, I wouldn't change anything because it would influence where I am and what I'm doing today, but for good or for bad, the lessons we learn can only be applied forward. It's unhealthy to keep wishing things were different to keep mentally applying the lessons backwards, but it is important to do t

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