Consider this idea I found online this morning…advice from a CEO on how to be successful. Measure yourself in how many No’s you’re getting. Not many? You’re not trying hard enough.
NewsCred CEO Shafqat Islam: If you’re not being told ‘no’ constantly, you’re not pushing hard enough.
“Multiple people have told me this, and I don’t know if I can credit it to a single person, but one thing that I think about is if you’re not getting told ‘no’ enough times a day, you’re probably not doing it right or you’re probably not pushing yourself hard enough,” Islam told Business Insider.
“I think that’s a good piece of advice for anybody building a company because you hear ‘no’ so many times,” Islam adds. “And I think that’s normal, that’s a good thing, that you’re trying to trying to do something that’s disruptive, that’s groundbreaking, that there’s going to be naysayers.”
This is from a business article and it’s not a direct parallel to our industry but it’s close. If you’re not hearing no…then you’re not trying. I heard Mark Walberg in an interview mention that he was “trying for 4 years to get the story of Irish Mickey Ward made”…which became “The Fighter.” Everyone hears no. But if you’re not getting a lot of them you’re either gotten a “yes” and you’re working…or you’re not pushing yourself to get into a position to hear a no.
In my book I say the best revenge against a bad review is the comfort of knowing you put yourself in a position to be on stage or in a film or show…so that the reviewer had something to review. You did the right thing, you risked and got a place to go show off. It’s the same idea and it seems being successful in the start-up business, the principle applies as well. You’re not finding enough opportunities if you’re not hearing a lot of no’s.