How Rejection Fuels Growth

How Rejection Fuels Growth

I’ve had thousands of buyers turn me down over the past decade. If they all said ‘yes’, I’d have no idea if they bought because they liked the product, the price, the mission statement, my pitch, something else?

I’ve been turned down by dozens of investors, but each time I got a ‘no’, I got feedback that helped me improve and get a ’yes’.

Life gives you 99 ‘no’s’ and 1 ‘yes’. Sometimes that 1 comes on your first cold call, meeting, demo or pitch session.

Our first time doing anything is usually not our finest possible work.

So why get bent out of shape when people tell us ‘no’?

Here’s my pro tip after running four startups, sitting on boards and being an investor: learn to launch hoping to hear rejection from the first 50-100 buyers, investors, customers, etc. If you start out with a mindset of expecting a ‘no’, and get a ‘yes’, then you f*cking won. If you get a ‘no’ and expected a ‘no’, you get feedback (which is what you were seeking anyways) and that gets you to a ‘yes’ light-years faster than your competition.

Look for the ‘no’. Want the ‘no’. Ask for honest feedback and for specifics, and often people will provide it.

Business is a giant experiment. Get testing my founder friends! Discover your magic formula for your own startup success.

☝🏼I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below on your own experiences. How has feedback helped shape your life, business, startup?

#startups #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #business #motivation #thursdayquotes #thursdaymotivation #thursdaythoughts

 

Reagan Pollack

3 days ago

Reagan Pollack
In 2005 while attending Babson College business school, I set out to launch my first internet startup. The vision was to build a platform (back then it was called a web portal) that would connect the music industry and expedite artist discovery (A&R), facilitate new business deals, and bridge the fragmented music business ecosystem. The goal was large, but in order to accomplish it, without prior experience nor significant connections, I broke the mission down into manageable tasks and chunks. This not only helped lay the foundation but also helped me to prioritize which elements would be needed first and subsequently.At graduation, I headed back to Silicon Valley and began my adventure full steam by opening an office, raising capital, and hiring my first ten team members. With a business plan in hand, I had a clear roadmap from an operational and financial perspective, and by spending significant time constructing the website wire-frames, it helped me to better stress test my assumptions with real-world pre-customer feedback. While most of the business plan didn’t materialize the way I had envisioned, it did help me greatly to strengthen my resolve for the vision and gain confidence that the end goal was material. I implore founders today to spend a few weeks writing down their vision and breaking into daily tasks, and the rank them in order of importance - ask yourself “if this comes first, does this unlock value next?” “If this comes next, does this expedite the next phase on my list?” The best (fastest to get to market and grow) entrepreneurs think in phases and are incredible at prioritizing tasks to reach the next tranche of milestones. Being in a startup can be dizzying - there a dozens of potential features to build, hundreds of people to pitch, and time is your enemy. Practicing prioritization - the ability to truly rank each activity by its weight (value) to drive actual traction - will ultimately position your business to win cost efficiently and market effectively. #nostartupleftbehind #entrepreneur #startups #entrepreneurship #founderstory ... See MoreSee Less
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