This past year has been a series of “No’s and your not good enough’s,” for me, career wise. I am fortunate to be someone, who has the vision of where I would like to go and what I would like to do and actually have the skills to be good at it.
However, no matter how hard I work, to prove my skill set or how much motivation I have to succeed, it doesn’t seem to be enough to encourage someone to just give me a chance. I wanted to write about this because most twenty-somethings I know, are experiencing the same thing, in some form or another.
We hear things such as:
- “You need more experience to have this position”
- An entry level position requires 2-3 years experience. (Oxymoron?)
- “It’s great you have done 3 unpaid internships in the past but in order to be considered for a position with our company you need to do OUR unpaid internship.” (What?)
- ” We decided to go a different direction”
- After a few months of waiting..” We decided to postpone filling this position until further notice”
You get the drift.
It has been a struggle learning how to not let this repetitive, negativity bring me down and make me feel not worthy of my dreams and desires. To teach myself how to listen to the inner voice, telling me to keep going and trying and eventually it will happen.
The best way, I have found to cope with it, is just to allow their negativity and their disbelief, to fuel my fire. Every time someone tells me no, I give myself a bit of time to be sad or mad and then I just tack it on to the list of people that someday, I am going to prove wrong.
Although, it breaks your heart every time you have to keep on dreamin. The Eli Young Band has a fantastic song, that I blast every time I am discouraged. It helps me pick myself up and find the courage to keep believing.
Everyone that has become successful, has had multiple people tell them they weren’t good enough over and over again but they never let it stop them. They just learned how to use it to fuel their fire and look at them now!
Just a few women to remind you, it didn’t just happen over night. They have struggled and worked their way through many “no’s” and “not good enough’s.” So keep your head up and stay positive!
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This is such an excellent post. I’ve been thinking a lot about risk lately. Taking risks, when to take them, when to back off… essentially, when to let the no’s stay no’s and when to tell those no’s to watch me succeed. 🙂 It’s tough and tricky, and sometimes just to process of deciding to take a risk is risky itself!
I have to remind myself that nothing worth having is easy to get; I have to earn every step and every success. The world isn’t fair, and I’ll be overlooked when I don’t deserve it, but I’m not giving up.
I love, love, love this! I’m currently in the submissions process for a novel I wrote and have become accustomed to the battering of rejections weekly. I’ve taken to looking for the positives within the negatives. My last rejection said, “While your manuscript is not exactly what I’m looking I would certainly encourage you to keep trying.” I may be like the poor sucker who’s been told by the girl of his dreams that he has a one in a million chance and sees that he still has a chance, but when I read that I thought, “Huh, she saw potential.” It’s really about finding the right fit. It’s coming for both of us! I know it!