The Entrepreneurs Library
TEL 251: Rejection Proof with Jia Jiang
A summary of things you should know about Rejection Proof according to Jia Jiang
Introduction (00:37)
I am an entrepreneur and what I do is deal with everything that comes with rejection. Help people overcome their fear of rejection, tell stories about rejection, and help businesses turn rejection into opportunities.
The Book’s Unique Quality (03:27)
It’s a combination of story but also research and knowledge. I lived this myself and it’s a really fun story. If you like stories then you will love this book, I included stories but I also embedded a lot of research in there.
The Best Way To Engage (04:37)
They can do both. The whole book is a story but inside of the book I included lessons in each chapter. So you can jump in and take the lessons or you can read it front to back.
The Reader’s Takeaway (15:08)
Two words, just ask. In the book I talk about an experience where I went to fly someone’s plane. I went to an air field in Austin and in the lobby I saw this pilot and asked if I could fly his plane. I thought there was no way he was going to say yes, I didn’t have training, a license, knowledge, or even courage to fly a plane. But the guy said sure and that he would show me and he taught me how to fly. This experience only existed because I asked. We don’t ask because rejection is so painful and negative but that’s a lie we are telling ourselves.
A Deep Dive Into The Book (05:21)
A lot of us have dreams and ambitions, some of us want to be entrepreneurs and some of us just want to be successful in our careers. So what I found to be one of the biggest problems and my biggest problem was I was afraid of rejection. I was afraid of people saying no to me and I was so afraid of people’s opinions. This had such an impact on me that it started to dictate my life. Suddenly I found myself starting to conform with what others thought and live up to their expectations.
It first starts with my story and how I first got rejected with my investment and then how I told myself that I was going to look for rejection in order to toughen myself up to endure the pain. So that was my original goal but by everyday putting myself in front of people I discovered something amazing, some people will say yes to me. I would try to get people to say no and they would say yes. This raised the question to me, how many of these amazing moments are we missing in our lives? A great example from the book is from a day that I went to Krispy Kreme. I went and asked them to make me donuts that looked like Olympic rings, basically interlink five donuts to make them look like the Olympic symbol. I thought there was no way they would say yes to that but the donut maker took me very seriously and in fifteen minutes she gave me a box of donuts that looked like Olympic rings. At that moment my life completely changed and I thought, “how many Olympic donuts have I missed?” Because I didn’t ask, because I didn’t go seek, and I was always just rejecting myself before someone else even had the chance to reject me. From here I went out and decided to no longer care about rejection and I learned lessons about persuasion, communication, business, and negotiation.
NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 05:21
Notable Quotes From The Book (18:21)
“Do what you are afraid of and you become much stronger.” -Jia Jiang
The Credibility/Inspiration Of The Author (01:40)
The inspiration came from me living through a pretty amazing story be learning to see rejection differently. I had always been afraid of rejection my entire life but on the other hand I was very ambitious and wanted to be an entrepreneur. Out of those two conflicting emotions, fear always seemed to win out. I didn’t start my first company until I was 30 years old and then at that point I was rejected with the investment and that’s when I decided that I was going to conquer this rejection thing once and for all. So I started a blog as a silly experiment called, 100 Days of Rejection, where I would go out and look for rejection. It ended up turning into something amazing as a lot of people chimed in, a lot of people ended up saying yes to me and I learned how to get people to say yes to me.
Other Books Recommended By The Author (20:14)
Influence by Robert Cialdini
More Information About This Book and The Author (21:21)
Buy on Amazon today
His Website: fearbuster.com
Add him to Twitter: https://twitter.com/jiajiang
More Information About This Episode
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Wade Danielson
Wade is a 4-time serial entrepreneur and is the Founder/Host of The Entrepreneurs Library. With a long time passion for reading books, Wade created an online resource and podcast for entrepreneurs who love to read personal and business development books. His long-term goal in life is to start an entrepreneurial home schooling program for children of business-minded families.
