What I learned from 100 days of Rejection

Nearly all of TEDtalks are enjoyable but I really enjoyed this one. His stories were funny as it slowly unfolds to his point. "How you react to rejection is what defines you like the many greats".

I like to share my story as well. I was once a high-school relief teacher of the "last" (i dont really like the term but even some teachers gave up on them) class. A boy that sat right at the front asked me something ,during a short break, while the rest was being noisy and rowdy. He told me he felt rejected. He wants to improve his maths but his friends laughed at him for being "studious", his parents isn't educated, he never understood what his teacher was teaching but he was matured enough to know that this subject was important. So i gave him this scenario

"Is it possible for you to travel to a nearby university?"

"Yes"

"Is it possible for you to talk to a student there and ask for help on a particular maths question?"

He paused. I knew he was fearing the rejection. I rephrased.

"Ok. Assuming that you did that. What's the worst thing that could happened?"

"He might laugh at me or ignores me and walks away"

"Which you know might happen right? Now, how do you feel? What is the worst thing that happened to you? Would that student beat you up for asking a question?"

"No. They would only ignore me and hurt my pride."

"So? Why do you care about pride that can't help you but only hurt you? Now, i want you to focus on this instead. Fast forward a few years and you are now an university student. A high school student walks up to you and asks you to help him with a maths question. Would you laugh at him? or would you want to help him?"

"I won't laugh at him for his courage to do this. So I would help him definitely!"

"So, you see that most others will actually be impressed by your courage right? And, you get to solve your maths problem. Knowing that nothing is really impossible, what limits you is usually your pride or your fear of rejection. If you can overcome that, nothing can really stop you from achieving what you want to achieve!"

After this little conversation I had with him, He was more confident and felt that nothing really could stop him anymore. I never really caught up with him and hope that he is achieving great things today!