A favorite author of mine was turned down 15 times until his first book was published. 15 times!!! I’m glad he didn’t let failure get in his way; he persisted. Hearing a story like kept me going. I knew that if I wanted something enough I needed to keep getting up after being knocked down.
Being knocked down…
After college, grad school and my first job, I started to make some attempts to move abroad. Not many people know this but, I was accepted to graduate school in Sweden in 2007. I was elated to find out the news. I was one of twenty that were chosen out of 450 applicants. I turned down the offer. There were a couple reasons for this; one was that I was scared to accrue more student debt. Six months later I got an interview at Maersk. The position was in Denmark. I was truly on a high the day I went on the interview. I thought my dream was finally coming through. Instead I got the ‘thanks but no thanks' email. I felt crushed again. It took me a little longer to get up after this defeat. My next attempt came 5 months later. I applied for a position within my company. The job description fit perfectly and it was in the only international department in the company. My fingers toes legs and arms were all crossed. I wanted this job so badly. A month passed and I unraveled once again. I was told that I was in the top two for the job. The hiring manager gave me great compliments but I didn’t hear them. All I heard was that I didn’t get the position and that I failed again.
Failure is a good thing
At some point during this period of failure I heard a man’s story on NPR. He started off by wishing his granddaughter failure. Yeah, I was shocked too! But he then went on to say that when he’s successful at his job it’s because he’s treading on familiar ground, but when he fails it’s because he did something he never did before and with that he learns from it.
For a while I wasn't sure if I would make this move. I was afraid I wouldn't get up after the next failure. I'm truly happy that my persistence has paid off. I'm standing tall and I'm ready for the next failure because I know with it, it will bring success.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
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