The Sales Manager Who Made Us Celebrate Harsh Rejection (And Why He Was Onto Something)
Failing, frequency, tolerance, resilience and why collecting no's is the fastest path to yes
I’ve experienced my fair share of loss and rejection over the last couple of years.
Like I was collecting a NO from every corner of society.
Failed relationships, unemployment, near homelessness, poorly performing creative projects, injuries and illness, poor mental health and actual death. So many no’s that I damn near became an ENT surgeon… (No’s… nose… ear, nose and throat surgeon… okay, never mind).
I remained buoyant by my internal drivers and willingness to persist.
Those rejections started slowing in frequency, the more I fixated on what I could control. The more I focused energy on my inputs, the more impact I would have on the outputs—i.e., reality.
Life hasn’t become easy, but I have been seeing many more YES in recent times (more on this in next week’s newsletter).
I got used to rejection, but didn’t let it make me despondent.
I knew that the power to manifest change and alter my own reality was within my grasp. These apparent failures laid the foundation for future success.
Most of us don’t like NO—we avoid it like the plague.
Words like…
No
Failed
Wrong
Rejection
Are all synonymous with self-worth.
Rejection Everywhere I Look
As I said, my life has seen a lot of all of the above over the last couple of years. I’ve also seen a lot of it in the world around me. Professionally, personally and within my friendship circles.
People experiencing rejection, failure, knockbacks and knockdowns.
In everything:
Work
Sport
Dating
Money
Business
Relocation
Relationships
It’s disheartening and difficult to see someone you know or love struggle with these losses—failure is a scary thing, rejection is real.
But no doesn’t mean never—it just means yes to something or someone else.
The sting of a stern NO can feel like a complete denial of who you are.
But it’s not.
That NO is just a YES in disguise… it’s a yes to another attempt to get to the real yes, aka the hard yes.
The famous Edison quote summarises it perfectly...
Love it.
You’re not losing. You’re not failing.
You’re collecting data.
Embrace the process and the feeling of the no, because it is getting you one step closer to the yes.
A Story to Illustrate the Point
Going back to the commission-only sales gig that I took back in late 2024.
This was my first ever sales gig, and not only was it cold-calling, but it was commission only… meaning, if I didn’t sell anything, I didn’t eat.
Talk about pressure.
I learned a lot in a very short amount of time. The environment required fast learning and even faster action.
Every call was put under the microscope.
Every tone or word was iterated on until the perfect call flow and pacing was found.
In sales, generally speaking, one of the key ideas is handling and being comfortable with rejection. It’s a core pillar of any sales role… learning to hear NO and simply accept it.
But this company took it a step further.
They didn’t just accept no…
They embraced it, loved it even.
If someone were to cut me off at the beginning of my spiel or hang up on me, my manager would turn to me and go, “What a legend”.
We were asked to celebrate these people.
These hard and brutal rejections were a NO that was encouraged and admired.
Why?
Because they weren’t wasting my time.
They weren’t slowing me down or getting in my way while I prospect for what I ultimately want—a resounding YES.
Which we always believed was close… now I was one call closer to finding it.
This company, this manager, embraced the strong NO. Because the hard NO, the quick rejection, frees up time and mental capacity to keep it moving until you find the right fit… to find a FUCK YES!
Final Thoughts
You have to embrace the no. Revel in it, love it, sit with it.
Embrace rejection, embrace failure.
It hurts. Yes.
I will not deny that... but you need it.
You need failure like a car needs petrol, like a tree needs sun or like the Parramatta Eels need to promise the world to their supporters and inevitably deliver mediocrity.
Trust me. Collect that data!
Get to the no/rejection/failure quickly and move on.
Fail fast.
You’re only one NO FUCKING WAY from the YES that will change your life forever... and that’s facts!
That’s it from me this week, gang.
With gratitude,
SAV
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