I was rejected 65 times in one day, and here’s what I learned

I didn’t leave my home in Idaho - on my own accord - and travel across the world to Ecuador to be rejected.

I don't care if you want to listen or not… but you are going to sit here for a minute, and you will have to hear what I am about to tell you!

I wish that’s what I would have said.

In fact, that’s completely opposite of how I responded after being rejected 65 times.

My head hung low.

I turned around and I began to walk away, hiding back my tears.

Sangolqui, Ecuador, 2011
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We’ve all been there.

Faced rejection that is.

It’s hard and uncomfortable, but it’s something we will - at one point in our lives - embrace.

In this video, I talk about Angela Duckworth’s book, GRIT: The Power of Passion and Perseverance and why page 149 changed my life.

It boils down to this: there are more gritty heroes than villains.

That alone changed everything for me.

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I wish I would have read this book before I left to Ecuador when I was 18, but I didn’t, which is why I am telling you about it now.

Had I know that there are more gritty heroes than villains, I would have been more hopefully.

That isn’t to say the people who rejected me are villains, in fact, Ecuadorian’s are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

This moment of rejection was a pivotal in my life, and it taught me that GRIT - besides Angela Duckworth’s definition - really means: Greatness Requires Internal Toughness.

It means you say “Roger, Out,” even though you have been knocked down time and time again.

Looking back, I now realize I needed to be rejected. I needed to be humbled and I needed to be taught this vital, character defining lesson.

My hope is that you remember - when you are discouraged - you can do hard things. You can be the person you want to be.

And you can even be that gritty hero the world needs.