Why Rejection Is A Good Thing. Really.
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You might face rejection in your life, through relationships, job applications or auditions. But, rejection isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes you need a little bit of ‘no’ to find the right yes! And there are plenty of rejection turned success stories out there. Here are just a few of our faves…
Albert Einstein
Ol’ Albert might be one of history's greatest geniuses, but did you know intellect wasn’t always his strongest suit? In fact, it’s been said he didn’t start to speak fluently until he was nine years old. He failed his university entrance exam. And was not very good at any other subject apart from physics. In a biography of his life, writer Walter Isaacson says he even had lots of trouble finding jobs: “Einstein had trouble getting an academic job. Indeed, it would be an astonishing nine years after his graduation from the Zurich Polytechnic in 1900 - and four years after the miracle year in which he not only upended physics but also finally got a doctoral dissertation accepted - before he would be offered a job as a junior professor." But y’know, he still went on to formulate the theory of relativity so...
Oprah Winfrey
Before she became a global household name, Oprah had to deal with a lot of hardship and rejection in her life. From an impoverished and abusive childhood to running away from home at 13 and losing a baby at 14, she faced more in her early years than most people do in their entire lives. Then, in her first job as an evening news reporter at Baltimore’s WJZ-TV, she was fired because she was ‘unfit for television news and couldn’t sever her emotions from her stories’. Crazy, right?! She then went on to become a daytime TV show host, has won various awards and accolades, was the best-paid female in the entertainment industry, is the richest self-made woman, and North America’s first black multi-billionaire. Pretty good going, really!
Munroe Bergdorf
When Munroe was hired by L’Oreal as part of their #allworthit campaign in 2017, she was the first transgender model to be hired and was hailed as ‘the face of modern diversity’. However, when she posted on social media about the racial violence of white people carrying nazi flags at an anti-racism deomonstration, the company quickly fired her saying her views were ‘at odds’ with the company. In 2020, L’Oreal posted about supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, which sparked outrage by many online for their treatment of Munroe. This resulted in Munroe speaking directly with the new president of L’Oreal and was given a new position on their Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board to ensure that this kind of thing never happens again. Amazing!
Jim Carrey
He’s one of the funniest and most loved actors of our time now, but that wasn’t always the case! At his first comic stand-up at a club called Yuk Yuk’s in Toronto, Jim was booed off stage. Later, when he auditioned for Saturday Night Live, he was told no to being in the cast. But it didn’t knock him down. In fact, Jim decided to do some manifesting and used the ‘Law of Attraction’ in hopes to better his life. He wrote himself a cheque for $10million, and put it in his wallet, carrying it to every audition. Then, seven years later, after his role in Dumb and Dumber, he was able to replace the cheque with a real one! and From then on, he heard lots of yeses...and was even in a film called Yes Man!
Gaten Matarazzo
Stranger Things actor Gaten was born with a genetic disorder called Cleidocranial Dysostosis, which affects the development of bones and teeth. Because of this, he was heavily bullied as a child, and, as a child actor, was handed more rejections than acceptances when auditioning for parts. But then came Stranger Things. Gaten says, “One of the biggest reasons why I hadn’t been getting roles was because of my lisp, and the teeth situation, and my height...but once I got the part on Stranger Things, they said they’d incorporate it and use it in a realistic way! They asked me if it was okay if the kids in the show had bullied me because of it. I said it’s totally cool. It’s realistic.” Through Stranger Things, Gaten has been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, MTV Movie and TV Awards, Teen Choice Awards and Young Artists Awards.
The Beatles
Beatlemania well and truly took over the planet when the group ‘made it’...but before that? Believe it or not, there were people who didn’t think they’d even make a dent in the music scene. When the band first formed, multiple record companies wouldn’t even listen to their tapes because they came from Liverpool, and back in the early 60’s, if you weren’t making music in London, you weren’t making music. Their most famous rejection came from an executive at Decca Records, who said ‘guitar groups are on the way out’ and that they ‘have no future in show business’. How wrong he was!
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