The ART OF ACCEPTING REJECTION

We are always told, one must learn to accept rejection and move on… but nobody tells you better than an Autorickshaw guy! 

Yes, you read that right, the Auto rickshaw drivers thought me, how to accept rejection and move on! How many times in our work and love lives have we been rejected - You interviewed at your dream company, but didn't get shortlisted. Your long term crush, when you proposed to, rejected you! Most of the times you don't know how to react to the situation. I too learnt this over a period of time, but it was a quite a revolutionary one when I actually got to it. 

Let me break this down for you - The Art of Rejection is fairly simple, yet our heart and brains complicate it for us humans to understand and process it. Do you remember the story that schools, colleges and at times some of the corporates taught you? The one where – a spider makes his web over and over again!

Well, that’s that. So, coming back to the auto rickshaw driver; for most part of my working life, I’ve had to travel via rickshaws and cabs, until ubers and ola’s came by. If you live in Mumbai, and travel to work which is in close vicinity, you’d definitely know what I mean to say. Initially, they rejected on your face, now they reject you on apps – Uff… the world is getting tech savvy…  

Every time I stepped out of office to get back home, it was a task to get an auto to agree with your destination. I’d fight, quarrel, abuse, curse but at the end of it, I’d still be standing on the road waiting for yet another auto to reject me. This happened every day, every year, time and again. At times, being the stubborn person that I am, I stood at the same place for hours not finding one. Sometimes, I just decided to walk further. And more often than not, I’d get a ride back home faster as compared to being stranded at the same location. There were times that I took a 4 kilometer walk back home, and just at the last mile managed to get a ride.

So what did this teach me, If I stood there doing absolutely nothing about it, repeating my same actions – I’d get nowhere. Likewise, in life, when you are rejected, don’t be afraid to walk ahead or even the whole journey – at the end of it, what matters is that you will reach your destination. Not as quickly as you would’ve ‘imagined’, but atleast you’ll get there. So move one. Walk the mile.

Who knows, what you might gain through this walk back home.