REJECTION - A STEP UP TO SUCCESS

There once was a kid who suffered rejection at the hands of his teachers. They said, "He is too stupid to learn anything!"

That boy could have believed them. He could have quit trying. He could have sat around in the misery of self-pity saying, "I’m too stupid to learn anything." He could have said, "Nobody believes in me - nobody cares." He could have gotten angry at the fools who couldn’t see the good in him. He could have rebelled and quit school. He could have become bitter and mean. He could have drowned his stupidity in a bottle, getting drunk every Saturday night.

Instead, he decided not to reject himself. He didn’t give up on himself. He decided not to believe what others believed of him. He bucked the current and tried even harder.

He soon taught those people that they had a thing or two to learn about life and about him. He went on to become "Thomas Edison - The Inventor" - the one who not only learned what others knew, but went on to discover thousands of things that no one had ever known before! No matter what he was, we all know what he went on to become!

Has anyone ever called you stupid? Are you going to believe them? Are you going to waste your time hating them and reacting against them? He who turns in a positive direction each time he hits a negative roadblock will find that he has made a right turn every time.

Another poor unfortunate boy didn’t learn how to speak until he was four years old. What hope could there be in life for him? He couldn’t read until he was seven. His teacher said he was, "mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in his foolish dreams". He was expelled from school - the ultimate rejection in academic circles. He was also refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. Another rejection.

That poor kid should have known he could never amount to anything. He should have known when to give up. He should have listened to his teachers and followed their predictions for his life. He should have wallowed in the juices of self-pity because no one believed in him. He should have gotten angry at those who expelled him. He should have let his brain be filled with bitterness and hate. But, he didn’t. Instead, he went on to become "Albert Einstein – The most notable scientist of our generation."

Sure, there were negative qualities about the boy’s life which were obvious to those around him. But, inside every ‘reject’ of society there is also a great potential for good.

But Einstein and Edison are gone. Now, what about you? What are your limitations? How many disappointments have you suffered? How many negative things have been said about you? What do you believe about yourself? Do you like to sit in passive agreement with all those negative feelings about your life and your future? Are you going to go along with the dog-eared mentality of defeatism? Are you going to mark your place in life and stay there forever - never going on to discover what you were made for - never fulfilling a divine purpose for your existence?

So, you live in a small town, but have you bought into the small-town mentality? Do you want to hang it all up and be like everyone around you? Do you want to drift on the currents of life and let them carry you where ever they will? Well, I guarantee you that they will always carry you downstream. The only way you will ever accomplish your greatest potential is to go upstream and cross-current.

If you can’t do that by yourself, then seek for the help you need from whatever sources are available. If you don’t know what’s available, start asking and seeking for the knowledge and the answers you need. If what you want is humanly impossible, then be bold enough to believe in the existence of a God who cares for you. Dare to seek for His help. People who reject God also reject the help He could give them.

Your success cannot be thwarted by those who reject you. Don’t fight against rejection - just go for that which is good. Spend your energies in positive pursuits instead of wallowing in emotional cesspools. There is yet a purpose for you to fulfill in life.

Ten thousand people can say, "But, my own parents are rejecting me. They say all kinds of horrible things about me. They don’t believe in me."

So what? One man was heard to say, "I have an idiot for a son." That boy was described as the worst student in school. He tried three times to get into ‘The School of Art’ and failed every time. He was rejected over and over and over again! So, did he crawl into a corner and lick his poor, miserable wounds? No! He went on to become the great sculptor, "Rodin" who created the famous statue called "The Thinker" !

The parents of another boy wanted him to become an engineer. When he failed to do so, they were disappointed in him. That boy wanted to become a singer, but his teachers said, "He has no voice at all and cannot sing." For some reason, He did not believe the opinions of those who rejected him. He went on to become the famous opera singer, "Enrico Caruso". Has anyone ever been disappointed in you? Does that mean you’ll never amount to anything?

One man worked on a "humorous war novel" for seven years and tried to get it published. He sent it to one publisher after another and each one gave him a ‘rejection slip’. He had the audacity to submit it to yet another publisher and another and another - and they too rejected his work as unfit for their purposes. So, what did he do? What would you do? The "rejectors" in life don’t know everything. The negative reactions of a multitude are not necessarily right. This guy went on to submit his work to yet another publisher and another. Twenty-one publishers rejected his work before one decided to publish it. It became a runaway bestseller and it was turned into a blockbuster movie before becoming a highly successful television series called, "M*A*S*H.

So you can’t take rejection? You can’t push ahead in spite of it? You are not going to try anymore, because you are too old, too young, or too dumb?

Ahhh, I don’t believe it! I think you are going to be motivated to do what you can today and then do a little bit again tomorrow. I think you are going to have the courage to keep letting those little bits add up until you actually get somewhere in life. I don’t think you are going to let the negativity of others get you down. I don’t think someone’s pessimism can hold you back.

I think something inside of you is being stirred by these words. You are gobbling them up like food in a famine. Here’s someone who cares enough to prod you with a stick and tell you to get up and try again - try something new - try something different. Here’s someone who is not going to reject you because of what you have done or because of where you have been. Something inside of you says, Thank God for a spark of faith which is igniting the fire of desire in me once again. I can do and be and become in spite of all the negative things that have come against me so far. I’m going to make it!

Have you eve been fired from a job? Talk about rejection! Do you know how devastating it is for someone to say, "We don’t need you and we don’t want you"? Families and churches say it all the time in many different ways. Well, do you know what? A newspaper editor fired a man because of his lack of ideas. That man was Walt Disney, a man with more ideas than you could imagine. He went bankrupt several times before he ever built Disneyland. So you see, rejection and failure did not daunt his enthusiasm for life and his belief in what he wanted to do. So, why are you ‘mully-grubbing’ over the fact that Aunt Susan doesn’t think you will ever amount to anything?

Forget about Aunt Susan. Jump up and grab today’s obstacle by the horns! Wrestle it to the ground and stand on it’s carcass shouting the victory.

When adversity tries to rob you of all your incentive, give it seven karate chops and demand that it begin to serve you! Turn every bad event into a blessing. So, you don’t know how to do that? Cave men didn’t know how to invent computers either, but they did what they could with what they had and invented the necessities of their day. No one in any generation knows all they need to know at the beginning of their life or even in the middle of their life.

Winston Churchill failed the sixth grade and suffered a lifetime of defeats and setbacks. But, finally, at 62 he became Prime Minister of England. His greatest contribution to life was after he became a senior citizen. So, what’s our excuse now?

We don’t have to affect a nation or the world. But, we can improve the welfare of our own families and our community. We can make a difference in the lives of one or two other people who will go on to accomplish more than we ever could by our own abilities or talents.

Self-centeredness is not essential to greatness. Many a strong woman has become the backbone of a man who accomplished great things. My secretary takes my writings and does all the fancy footwork which makes me look good. My name is slapped on the paper and I get the kudos, but she is developing her own creativity. Without her, you would not be getting these words at all. If she wasn’t putting all this into columns and adding artwork and sharing her editorial expertise, I would have floundered by the way a long time ago. You don’t need the limelight or the fame to accomplish good things in life.

I have another staff member who does all the rest of the office work including printing, folding, hole-punching, envelope stuffing, sorting, labeling and the mailing. If I had to do all that, I would be much too tired to do the writing. Without them, I could not accomplish as much as I do. In the process of helping me fulfill my desires, goals and potential, they are also growing and developing and becoming something more than they have ever been before. Life is a joint-effort of both struggle and success.

Our writings are now on the world-wide web. (www.dailyhelp.com) But they would have never made it there without the prodding and help of our webmaster. He dared to step out and learn new things. Because of him, our words can now reach people in any country of the world.

One woman wanted to something useful with her life and volunteered to translate our writings into Spanish. That woman’s words will be read in Mexico, Spain and all of South America. Her words? Yes! They are her words, I can’t write in Spanish. Every good result from those Spanish words will be chalked up to her account. She took her feelings of rejection and turned them into victories.

There are no insignificant people in the world. There are only people who feel worthless and people who are treated as though they are nothing. I appreciate my wife. If I had to cook, wash dishes, wash clothes, clean the house, iron clothes, put away dishes, fold clothes, take care of kids and do all of that over and over again every day of my life - how much office work and writing could I do? How alert and creative would I be at the end of the day?

When we value each other and treat each other as valuable, then our own value in life goes up and up and up. But, when we despise others, we despise our own selves and all that we could become. When we put others down, we are sawing another rung out of our own ladder to success. When we bless others, those blessings boomerang back upon us - and we are encouraged to take the next step in life. When we curse and criticize others, that curse comes back to haunt and harass us. When we continually reject others, we set ourselves up for rejection somewhere in the future. The Boomerang Principle is an unwritten law, but it is just as certain and powerful as the law of gravity.

I’m trying to help those who suffer from rejection and constant opposition. I’m trying to help those who are continually being put down. One of the best ways I can help them is to persuade others to quit being "rejectors".

Quit doubting a person’s capabilities. Give them a chance to dig deep within and to struggle to produce good results. Let them learn from their mistakes. Let them practice and practice without perfection, believing that eventually practice will make perfect - or at least produce that which is acceptable.

Maybe they are financially unstable. Henry Ford went broke five times before he finally succeeded. If he had been your son, would you have believed in him? Would you have shaken your head, declaring that you weren’t going to give him another penny? Would you have told him to go out and get a decent job? If he had been stuck in a normal job, no one would have never known a thing about him.

The rejection mentality produces failures. Great people have often been discouraged by those who were closest to them. Some have gone on to be great, in spite of the negativity of those who were closest to them.