Every time one gets rejected at an interview or is told a project report or an idea isn’t good enough — they are unsure of the next step. When they ask a peer or an elder for advice to deal with the pain of rejection, they’re given bumper sticker answers.
They can vary from “Hey, toughen up” or “Just deal with it” or “Let it go”. These answers more than leave the person wondering if there is a magical way to take away the pain. Unfortunately, there isn’t and Ambi Parameswaran becomes the oracle that many of us need. Not only does he divide the emotional and practical part of rejection, he also takes us through a step by step and phase by phase of the process, and gives us answers on what to do in his new book, Spring: Bouncing back from Rejection.
Acceptance versus rejection
One might ask if the topic necessitates a book for itself. The answer is yes, it does and it is very pertinent to the times we live in. In times when young girls are known to request plastic surgeons for ‘looks’ that mimic smartphone filters and depression due to lack of ample ‘acceptance’ online and offline.
Young millennials are blessed with many things — like being born in the post-family planning era where there is no struggle for space or food or attention. The ‘coddled’ generation as Parameswaran puts it, has not tasted enough hard knocks in the lives of their parents when everything including groceries (called ration back then) was in short supply. As jobs were few, even the brightest of the generation had to face an endless number of rejections in interviews and later in life.
However, millennials and centennials grew up in times of campus interviews. But what happens later in life is another matter. Most of them face the shock of rejection during the wee years of their professional career with little arsenal up their sleeves to combat it in a healthy manner. For them, this book is a Godsend.
Candidate to employee to employer
Parameswaran does not drag the book with discourses on well-being. In fact, the top advertising executive draws heavily from his own personal experiences of rejection as an interview candidate, as an ad man and finally even as an employer — how he tried to reject a persistent candidate but was won over by his resolve.
He also explains how as an ad exec, he was ‘prepared’ for rejection as impressing clients was no mean task in his business. He also tells how he had even learnt from the many times his pitches were rejected. He also added a journal that a reader can maintain as notes that can help them later.
Parameswaran also adds anecdotes of successful people and their long-winding journeys to success. But the most impressive part of his book is his own journey of rejection, which he had to face in spite of being an IIT Madras and IIM Calcutta grad before he became the success he is.
Book: Spring: Bouncing Back From Rejection
Author: Ambi Parameswaran
Publisher: Westland
Pages: 232
