One of the superpowers needed within the career space is how to handle rejections.
Rejection hurts, no matter what it’s about: a job application, a cold call, a pitch for an idea, or bad feedback.
Creative professionals feel good about themselves when they create great content and products. In this situation, rejection can hurt even more. It’s impossible to avoid rejection completely, but there are ways to deal with it and even use it as motivational fuel.
Here are seven tips on dealing with rejection as a creative professional and ways to turn a bad situation into a good one.
Rejections aren’t always a sign of how good you are.
There are many reasons why people are turned down. Maybe you weren’t the right fit for the job (or the timing wasn’t right), your creative style doesn’t match the brand’s aesthetic, or the agencies you’re contacting aren’t the right fit for your niche.
Unless you’re told, it’s because of quality, whatever the reason for rejection, it probably isn’t. And that gives us comfort.
Think about who is turning you down.
Being turned down by a world-class design organisation is very different from being turned down by a random internet troll, and that should change how you feel about being turned down.
If the person rejecting your work has a lot of influence in the creative industry, try to find out why they are giving you this kind of feedback. If they’re trying to help, that’s one thing. But if they try to bring you down on purpose, it might be because they are jealous of you.
Consider the feedback you get and where it comes from to decide if it’s helpful and worth your time.
Recognize how bad it hurts to be turned down, and give yourself time to heal. This one takes a lot of emotional intelligence to pull off, and even then, it still hurts. When someone you look up to in your field turns down your work or idea, it can hurt. Similarly, if you get fired from a job or lose a client, it’s going to hurt.
The important thing here is not to hide the rejection or keep a toxically positive attitude no matter how you feel. Letting yourself feel the pain of being turned down is a way to heal.
Try writing down why this was painful, give yourself a few days or weeks to grieve, and then write down what you’ve learned from it. Thank the experience for what it taught you, and start moving on.
Look for patterns in the way people say no.
It might be time for a change if your creativity has stopped growing or if you keep getting the same feedback.
This doesn’t mean that cold calls to find new clients are always turned down. If your manager or client keeps telling you that the way things look is “off,” you might want to change styles. If a client doesn’t like the ideas you suggest, instead of guessing, ask them for examples you can use.
Listen to specific feedback (if it comes from a good place) and make changes based on what you hear.
Use failure to make you more creative.
As creatives, rejection can psychologically mess with our minds. So you’ll need to separate yourself from your work enough to realize that rejection is necessary and sometimes even welcome if you want to make a masterpiece.
You can use the power of the feelings of being turned down to help you succeed. This trait is something that all successful athletes, investors, and artists have in common. How many beginnings start with a no? Too many to count.
Letting rejections fuel your fire and push you forward can help you refocus your efforts on something much better than your original idea. Remember that you were turned down, but don’t let it turn you mean. Always be modest but determined.
It’s not always a good idea to keep going.
Just a note about how you should treat the people you talk to. People often say things like, “We don’t have anything right now, but feel free to keep in touch.” In this case, you can contact them often with new information. But if someone tells you straight out that your work doesn’t matter to them, be polite and don’t keep trying. It’s likely to hurt you more than helping you.
Final advice for creatives who have been turned down
Staying in your comfort zone won’t help you grow as a creative professional. And trying new things makes the chance of being turned down bigger. Still, being too comfortable stops people from being creative. Still, too much comfort kills creativity.
To achieve your objectives, you must remain motivated and accept the rejection that comes with them. You can do this!
After all, as a creative professional, getting turned down is a sign that you are taking chances and opening doors.
For HRs and talent recruitment, here is how to reject creatives with grace, so you don’t cause them to read articles like this.