Let’s face it, rejection sucks. It sucks when you are excited about a job, and you don’t hear back. It sucks, even more, when you have an interview for a job, and you don’t get it. I don’t know about you, but I tend to take that personally when I meet someone, and I think things go well, but they don’t.
As much as it sucks getting rejected from a job, it sucks way worse when it is your own company or freelance business. Not getting a job, not getting clients, not gaining traction, well, it is hard.
It is even harder now, with so many businesses struggling to stay open, the budgets they used to have to buy, just aren’t there. Your clients and potential clients may not be in business at the end of the year, even.
So, with all of this in mind, I must say, it sucks to be working for myself. It is hard getting up and not hearing back. It is hard to wonder where and when your business will be profitable. Or if, gasp, I will need to find full-time employment and close up shop.
But what sucks worse than rejection, is the inability to even put myself in a position to be rejected. This spring/summer has been hard both professionally and personally. Some days, I just don’t have the energy to do what I need to do.
So, I am taking baby steps now. Every day I put something new out there to get used to rejection. I have submitted some photos to Unsplash. Some of them have been accepted, some of them haven’t. I don’t find out why they are rejected, just that they didn’t meet some part of their criteria.
Oddly, two things have happened from this rejection.
First, it has made me want to pick up my camera again. I hate to say it, but I haven’ picked up my camera in….maybe a year. I have been using my iPhone to take pictures. But even with that, I haven’t sat down to really focus on taking pictures since the world shut down.
So, having an urge to be creative is definitely a win from being rejected.
Second, I have discovered, it doesn’t really hurt to be rejected like this.
Maybe something I thought was technically right, was not aligned, had dirt on the lens, or was just a dumb photo. This just means I need to practice my craft, thoughtfully look at my photos, and then try again.
Before the pandemic hit, my plan was to take photos and work on them and get them out to Adobe Stock. This never happened.
I think learning from my photo rejections has reinvigorated me to work harder and get them out there.
Posting photos to Unsplash was a baby step towards posted pictures and making money doing it. The rejections have been painless. They have accepted a few of them. Now it is time to take the next small step and tomorrow another.
Rejection is only a failure if I quit. I’m not quitting!
Note: I submitted more photos. I will find out within the hour if any of them were accepted. The photo for this post was one of them. Wish me luck!