Rejection: The Great Booster of Creativity and Motivation
Hello, underdog. See what science says about people like you.
There are hundreds of cases of great entrepreneurs who surpassed themselves after moments of rejection.
Apparently, there is a pattern in cases like these where a failure situation leads to increased creativity and motivation.
But how does this happen?
This is what this study demonstrates, carried out by researchers at John Hopkins and Cornell universities. See details below.
The Rules of the Study
A sample of 100 college students was divided into two categories:
- People who were chosen to participate in a group during the experiment.
- People who were rejected to join a group during the experiment.
One of the activities was to draw an alien, and the evaluators were observing criteria for creativity.
Creativity criteria involved the level of detail and unusual, non-standard features in the drawings.
And the Results Were…
In addition, participants were asked to rate their agreement to five statements including “I prefer being different from other people”.
The results showed that students who had been rejected and who considered themselves independent, different, had the highest average score in creativity.
Important Conclusions
A person’s creativity is not only related to his/her talent, but to the life experience which he undergoes.
A moment of rejection, of defeat, can be the moment that will bring the most motivation and ideas to overcome obstacles.
However, it should be noted that this manifests itself — at least in this study — in people who claim to have a more independent personality, a less essential link to belonging to a group.
Lessons from Creative Entrepreneurs Who Overcame Rejection
Look at the testimonial below.
Jack Ma was turned away from the police, the university, even a job at KFC — all of which created in him the independence of belonging to a group as well as encouraged him to walk his path.
In addition, there are several other great examples in the corporate world.
Steve Jobs was once fired from Apple, a company he created and grew from scratch.
JK Rowling has had Harry Potter manuscripts rejected 12 times by publishers.
Elon Musk was bullied and abused in his youth, as well as being kicked out from PayPal.
Of Course, Being Rejected Is in No Way a Positive Experience
Nor does having many rejections mean you will be more successful. Otherwise, people would be begging not to be accepted.
The big lesson comes from the fact that you need to know yourself, look at yourself and understand how you can walk your own path.
Ask yourself:
- What bad can happen if a group doesn’t want me as a member?
- What are the advantages of working alone?
- Why do I need to be with others?
- What can I do for myself that other people cannot?
After all, “for the socially rejected, creativity can be the best revenge”.
