Seth's Blog : Give me one reason

Give me one reason

When your project, proposal or resume is rejected, it’s tempting to try to understand why.

Scrutinize the rejection letter and turn the short sentence into a paragraph or an essay, then play it over and over in your search for how to do better next time.

If you can simply answer this rejection, next time will go better.

The frustration really kicks in when the reasons begin to conflict. Too hot, too cold. Too tall, too short…

The truth is simpler: People who reject you or your work aren’t giving you the real reason. They’re simply inserting “here is where I write a few generic sentences to sound polite.”

Even if you could completely answer the objection in that rejection letter, they’re still going to reject you.

That’s because the rejector isn’t here to teach you anything, and isn’t offering the objection so that you will correct it. They’re simply being nice when they say, “go away.”

The honest rejections would say something like, “my boss didn’t like you,” or “I was in a bad mood,” or “we realized that our spec wasn’t very clear and the person we liked didn’t fit it either,” or “we wanted someone who looked more like us,” or “your competence made us nervous,” or…

Take what they wrote and replace it with “no.”

It’ll save a lot of time.