

A Founder's Constant State of Rejection - smirksirlot
http://founderdating.com/a-founders-constant-state-of-rejection

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jhspaybar
I had started a moderately successful company during dot com 1.0 when I was
still in high school, my biggest issue was dealing with the downs, the
rejection, the "no" from customers. One thing I found amazingly beneficial was
to become a car salesman for a while. It's one of the toughest type of sales
there is, everyone just hates you(even your co-workers/managers) and even good
car salesmen will only sell a car to about 1 in 5 people they talk to, and on
a weekend you might talk with 10-15+ people.

This obviously isn't a solution that'll work for everyone, but if you had just
a year early in life to spend on a car dealership selling cars it'd be an
amazing experience for learning. Now when I hear a no, or experience failure
it just doesn't even phase me, I've already heard no tens of thousands of
times. I'm sure there are other types of sales where this could be learned,
but if you want to be a founder I sure think there'd be a huge amount of
benefit gained from a car sales type experience.

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smirksirlot
Something along these lines - one piece of life advice I often hear is that
everyone should work in retail/sales for a bit, just to get a taste of
rejection and learn to deal with it.

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mweil
This is incredibly well written and 100% on-point with my own personal
experiences. This paragraph stood out the most to me:

"As a techie individual contributor in a larger company, I could go to work
everyday and execute 99% predictably. As a founder, I had to find ways to
plead your case over and over — to employees, investors, candidates,
advertisers, users — and I got rejected a lot. For an introvert, the amount of
pleading and subsequent rejection came as quite a shock."

That's probably one of the most difficult adjustments I've had to make moving
from 16 years of plain-old-coding into being a founder.

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jmalter
"When you’re a founder, your company defines you. That means that your
company’s daily ups and downs become your personal ups and downs; that’s a big
adjustment."

Could not agree more with this line - you have to be able to take the mercuric
ups and downs.

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Terpaholic
I also feel the converse is true to some extent - the effect of a founder on a
company's atmosphere is massive, especially at smaller scales.

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fitandfunction
For me, running helps a lot.

When I run I have a constant inner monologue of "don't stop, don't stop, don't
stop" for 45 min.

It never seems to get easier, but I know that I ran successfully yesterday,
and the day before, and the day before ... hence, I should be able to do it
again today.

Then, there are also the physical / health benefits.

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GeorgeTirebiter
"No" is just a word that I'll frequently hear before I hear "Yes!".

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bhc3
Along those lines, saw this tweet earlier today:

"Entrepreneurs take note: The going rate for a 'yes' to your ideas is roughly
ten 'no's. - @neilpatel"

<https://twitter.com/johnsonwhitney/status/268411928408363009>

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xrd
This is probably the best thing I've read which details the emotional state
you are in as a founder. Thank you for writing this.

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vrishabh
That's a great piece of advice. Puts it across really well the emotional
connectedness of a founder with his Startup.

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alexfisher
Great article. Thank you.

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bravoyankee
Rejection Therapy is a great way to get over the fear of rejection. It
actually makes getting rejected feel triumphant. Instead of it being something
to dread, it becomes an awesome rush.

For those who don't know what I'm talking about: <http://rejectiontherapy.com>
and the hardcore 30 day rejection therapy challenge:
<http://rejectiontherapy.com/rules/>

