1: Starbucks founder Howard Schultz made presentations to 242 potential investors, 217 of whom said no.
2: This is Charlie Chaplin’s rejection letter for his manuscript for ‘The Tramp‘:
3: Howard Aiken famously said: “Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.”
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Conclusion: This all sounds familiar and logical, right? So why are we so eager to pitch our ideas, and to get feedback? Why do we look for confirmation?
Sometimes we might have no choice as we need to persuade people to give us money or access to their audience or to produce our movies. But we know that the more original, innovative or creative our ideas are the less likely we will be able to convince other people.
As an internet entrepreneur you don’t need millions to launch your website. You need some coding knowledge, $30 for a domain name including 12 months of hosting and one or two free weekends. Alternatively you could steal the money, find a friend to do the coding and report sick at work and work from home for a few days.
Either way, you should remove as much friction between you and your ideas as soon as possible.
Remove the need for funding by starting small so you remove the need to persuade investors. Ask your buddy to do the development so you don’t have to spend 6 months learning PHP. What else stands between you and the end result you are aiming for?
Never give up when you get rejected.
Even better: don’t give anybody the opportunity to reject you.
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