—
Entrepreneur Jay Bloom equates being a self-made businessman with being in the dating world. Consider this scenario:
You walk into a bar and see a beautiful stranger. You think of the best conversation starter, and you slowly approach. You’re basically told to take a hike.
Now you have 3 choices:
- Walk away, dejected
- Walk away, hopeful that you’ll meet someone else
- Stay in the moment and think of a different approach
No matter which answer you choose, you are expressing a direct result of rejection. It is something that everyone faces at one time or another. It’s how we choose to handle that rejection and learn from it that defines how we will fare moving forward.
In 1941, Winston Churchill famously said, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.”
Positive Ways to Handle Rejection or a Setback.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor & Statistics, 20% of businesses fail in the first two years, and 45% fail within five years. With numbers like that, why would anyone want to venture into their own business? The answer is relatively simple: because the rest of those businesses succeed. And even if someone’s business does fail, that’s no indication that their next venture won’t be a success, especially if they learn from their mistakes.
As an entrepreneur, Jay Bloom has experienced adversity and failure. In every case of rejection, Jay has chosen either to walk away with his head held high and his mind full of ideas on how to handle the next opportunity, or to stick with the current situation and find a more successful game plan.
Finding out what motivates people and giving them what they want has been a model that Jay Bloom has maintained throughout much of his career. Whether in the banking world, working with startups, or building strategic partnerships, he believes that the ability to take risks without fearing failure leads to positive outcomes.
Don’t Worry, Be Positive.
Maintaining a steady demeanor that refuses to give in to panic has helped Jay Bloom find success. One example is his work as co-founder of Pegasus Group Holdings. Developing renewable energy projects, including the largest solar-powered data center in the United States (The Hive, in Mohave County, Arizona), required a strong backbone to face harsh critics. It also required a lot of positive thinking to believe the massive project would become a reality. When it did, Jay chalked it up to determination as much as business acumen.
Rejection or a Failure Isn’t the End of the Story
Going back to the dating metaphor, if someone rejects a person, there arises a sense of being the only person in the world who has experienced rejection, but that is certainly not the case.
The same goes for entrepreneurship. As Forbes points out, even the most successful entrepreneurs were told at one point that their ideas were not saleable. Some of them were rejected hundreds of times. Not a good dating record. But it only takes that one “yes” to create the next big thing. That is what keeps entrepreneurs like Jay Bloom going, moving beyond rejection or temporary setbacks to acceptance and, ultimately, success.
As Abraham Lincoln says “Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” Clearly, Jay Bloom agrees in his philosophy that you haven’t lost until you give up.
—
This content is brought to you by Shahbaz Ahmed.
Photo provided by the author.