It can take the face of a friend, maybe even a best friend. It can come from the eyes and the lips of a spouse or a parent or a mentor.
You might not have felt that type of rejection before, but it is coming. It comes for us all.
Someone will crap on your dream and for no other reason than their minds cannot understand your dream. Or their own dreams have been shattered and the pieces forged into an ingot of bitterness. Or jealousy. Someone out there, right now, doesn’t want you to succeed until they’ve succeeded, but still they won’t want your success to be bigger than theirs.
Someone out there will tell you to quit because you aren’t good enough. Maybe they won’t say it in so many words, but it will be in their suggestions: Have you thought of going back to school? I think you’d be really great at (insert various odd job here).
Or maybe they will just come right out and say they hate what you do and how you do it and you’re a fool for trying. They’ll list off reasons why you shouldn’t: you’re not educated enough, you don’t have enough talent/time/dedication, you’re too young, you’re too old, it didn’t work for me so it won’t work for you.
But here are some reasons why you should:
No good thing worth accomplishing is easy.
You are smart, hard working, passionate, and always willing to learn.
You won’t let rejection after rejection tear you down and make you quit.
You maybe don’t have a college degree, and you’ve made some mistakes, but you have a calling and it is your right and responsibility to answer the call.
Rejection from agents and publishers is nothing compared to those closest to us who do not believe in us, or worse, who try to drag us down with them. Let go of the non-believers. It’s OK to laugh and show your teeth and say, “I’m going to do it, with or without your blessing.”
