After leaving my full-time job as a journalist, I started earning my moolah by doing the odd freelance writing job, here and there. Most of these jobs I got through the internet, like advertising myself on writing and media platforms found on social media. From there, this is how I build a steady relationship with some of my clients. In return, they offer me consistent work regularly to help me to supplement my income. But lately, jobs are getting scarce due to the depreciation of the economy, which leads to clients cutting down on budgets and costs.
Being resourceful, I decided to apply for a full-time remote writing job on an editorial job searching platform, offering everything from copywriting to SEO to candidates who fit the bill. But recently, I was rejected for a coveted writing job which I initially put my hopes highly on. After sending all my most significant writing samples and putting on two referrals to mark my credibility, they finally say the unexpected by wishing me all the best in my next career search. I was bewildered and asked myself, "Why, oh why?"
Rejection and failure are something that almost everyone has experienced throughout their life. It doesn't matter whether you are fabulously wealthy, middle class, or poor. From the time you are first born into this world, you find your infant self rejecting the natural breast milk of your biological mother instead of some animal-based protein even though the former is nature's best. Either way, it is vice versa. As you enter the early growing years in school, you experience a rejection phrase of a different kind. Picture scenes of whimsical children's birthday parties where you are left standing in the corner, perhaps eating the smallest piece of birthday cake by yourself just because the popular kids have practically lapped up everything and gone playing hide and seek. When you are a hardworking and bright teenager about to embark on tertiary education, you suddenly received a disappointing letter from the Education Department saying that your scholarship was rejected for unknown purposes. In adulthood, you faced rejection in the working world and were unjustly denied that well-deserved promotion just because that other scheming colleague of yours has been sleeping around with your immediate superior. Above are just some examples of rejections we faced in life, but not limited to those, of course.
Failure is interrelated with rejection and they both go hand in hand with each other. Many of the world's most iconic historical figures and successfully wealthy tycoons from their respective niches have all undergone multiple failures of sorts ala school of hard knocks before finally tasting success in life. Case in example, Sir Thomas Edison, also known as the father and inventor of the light bulb. As the story goes, the man himself failed 1,000 times before finally becoming successful. Today, in the modern 21st-century world, the present richest man on earth Elon Musk practically has a rocky start at the beginning of his multi-billion empire journey. First, he got rejected by Netscape and ousted at ZIP2. Second, his earliest love of labour Paypal was initially voted as 'The Worst Business Concept Of The Year'. Third, Tesla was failing hard before it became a cash cow. Fourth, everyone expects SpaceX to hit doomsday. Fifth, Musk's turbulent personal life and finances. And the list goes on.
But being a writer and big literature fan, my favourite failure story is none other than horror novelist extraordinaire and superstar, Richard Bachman. Richard Bachman or more popularly known to the world as Mr Stephen King was the celebrated author of multiple award-winning macabre-infested books like The Shining, Salem's Lot, Christine, Carrie, Cujo, and the likes..etc. But success wasn't easy even though your last name was called King. According to the man himself, King was rejected so many times in the early start of his career that he pinned every rejection letter he received to his wall with a nail. By the time he was 14, the nail in his wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled on it. Eventually, King then replaced the nail with a spike and went on writing. The rest, as they say, is history.
As for myself here, I will continue with my job search despite being rejected earlier. After all, I have the undying love and support of my loved ones such as my beloved mum and dad. Also, the tenacity and determination of my idol Mr Stephen King whom I plan to become the next one of my generation if everything goes well as planned soon.
Lim Su Yee is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav.
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