There are no books on Amazon with a perfect 5-star rating. There are no products that everyone likes. There is no piece of art or music that is universally loved — in fact, Beethoven’s symphonies were widely panned in the day.
You can’t please everyone — no matter how hard you try, no matter how good you are at your craft.
If you create something, somebody out there is guaranteed to reject it. If you write a book — someone will call it trash. You give a speech, someone will boo you.
In fact, one of the book reviews of an outstanding work by meditation master Thich Nhat Hanh calls the book ‘useless.’
All this tells us only one thing — you can’t create anything without risking rejection. You can’t do anything big without risking failure.
If we allow that fear of rejection to win, we will never write that book. And instead of possibly a 4.5-star rating on Amazon, we will have no rating.
Hiding from rejection takes us from 4.5 to zero. And that is real failure.
So put your work out. Take that rejection. Create that piece of music. Make that YouTube video. And accept that someone will boo you.
That is the only path to success.
– Rajan