We’ve all felt it in one form or another……that ugly feeling of rejection. There is no worse feeling than having your hopes, dreams and even your heart crushed by something or someone you wanted more than anything else in the world.
Have you ever been there? Have you ever wanted something so bad you can taste it? You do everything necessary to make it happen? Sacrifices, dedication, discipline - blood, sweat and tears?
Well I have, and very recently too.
At the beginning of the year (January 2nd), like every other Blogger out there, I wrote about my goals for 2014. You can read about them here. From that long list of goals, the one that was nearest and dearest to my heart was getting published. You see, I was actually very close to that goal and dream becoming a reality!
Fast forward just two weeks later and I got some even better news!…..I was strongly being considered. Wow!! I was sworn to secrecy, but I was so excited, I had to share something with my readers without letting the cat out of the bag. Here’s the post I wrote that exciting day. I was one step closer to one of my biggest goals of 2014!!
Maybe it’s time to give you a bit of background into this goal turned rejection (turned fuel to keep pushing forward)
Late last year, following the recommendation of a colleague who had some success getting an item published locally, I began to look at the possibility of getting a room that I designed published in a national design magazine. I sent out a few emails, and was very excited when I got a response back from one of the big guys in the industry, expressing interest in a toddler room that I designed a couple of years before. This was an Editor/Producer who has had a high success rate of getting articles she submits published in the big national magazines she works with.
She asked me to submit my photographs and explained that the process is a long one with a lot of waiting in between, but my chances were pretty good. I was super excited to hear that from someone who is pretty successful in the publishing world.
She was great to deal with - always very prompt with her responses and kept me up to date with what was going on. She is definitely a good person to know if publishing is your goal.
This is the room they were interested in:
Source: Casa Vilora Interiors
Source: Casa Vilora Interiors
Source: Casa Vilora Interiors
Source: Casa Vilora Interiors
The process is that you send them a few shots of the room and if they are interested they come out and do their own photo shoot and a little bit of styling to appeal to their readers.
This feature would have been a great tool to propel my business forward, both locally and nationally.
As I was researching cool quotes to share about rejection, I came across the Merriam-Webster dictionary’s definition of the word rejection…. “to refuse to believe, accept, or consider (something). : to decide not to publish (
The part that hit me is the “because it is not good”? That really hurt my feelings and for a second I wanted to stay in that moment. But I didn’t.
What I did instead was to look at the positives……I mean I still have this wonderful contact in the publishing world. I asked her if it was ok to share some of the other projects I was working on, and she expressed interest in a couple. That’s a good thing!
What also came to mind is all the successful people like Michael Jordan, Walt Disney, Oprah Winfrey, who were all rejected several times in the early part of their careers, yet that was more of the motivation they needed to keep pressing forward.
Rejection can be a good thing if you really want success. Not everyone will like or support what you are doing, so you have to truly believe in yourself, and believe you are good.
Amazingly enough, the day after my rejection, I attended the panel discussion with Alexa Hampton, Jay Jeffers, and Michael Imber at the Houston Design Center and the subject of the discussion was GETTING PUBLISHED! What a blessing that was hearing from people who have been there and done that. And as I mentioned in my post just yesterday, I had a one-on-one discussion with Alexa Hampton about getting published. It was very encouraging and inspiring. Read the post here in case you missed it. She had some specific advice for me, and I am already acting on her advice.
Talk about a new outlook!…….
Getting published may or may not happen this year for me, but that’s the beauty about goals, you don’t have to put an expiration date on them. They will happen in due time. Just keep pressing on! Rejection for me has been a good thing.
Wish you all a wonderful weekend!
Be Inspired!
Veronica Solomon, Casa Vilora Interiors
VeronicaSolomon.com
She is clearly as savvy a business woman as she is creative!
