Chris Dixon

  • September 12, 2010
If you aren’t getting rejected on a daily basis, your goals aren’t ambitious enough

My most useful career experience was about eight years ago when I was trying to break into the world of VC-backed startups. I applied to hundreds of jobs:  low-level VC roles, startups jobs, even to big tech companies.  I got rejected from every single one.  Big companies rejected me outright or gave me a courtesy interview before rejecting me. VCs told me they wanted someone with VC experience.  Startups at the time were laying people off.  The economy was bad (particularly where I was looking – consumer internet) and I had a strange resume (computer programmer, small bootstrapped startups, undergrad and masters studying Philosophy/mathematical logic).

The reason this period was so useful was that it helped me develop a really thick skin.  I came to realize that employers weren’t really rejecting me as a person or on my potential – they were rejecting a resume.  As it became depersonalized, I became bolder in my tactics. I eventually landed a job at Bessemer (thanks to their willingness to take chances and look beyond resumes), which led to getting my first VC-backed startup funded, and things got better from there.

One of the great things about looking for a job is that your “payoff” is almost always a max function (the best of all attempts), not an average. This is also generally true for raising VC financing, doing bizdev partnerships, hiring programmers, finding good advisors/mentors, even blogging and marketing.  I probably got rejected by someone once a day last week alone. In one case a friend who tried to help called me to console me. He seemed surprised when I told him: “no worries – this is a daily occurrence – we’ll just keep trying.”  If you aren’t getting rejected on a daily basis, your goals aren’t ambitious enough.

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  • http://bottomlinelawgroup.com/ Antone Johnson

    This really has me thinking about how much psychology lays the foundation for the success of tech entrepreneurship. Failure is the other badge of honor in the Valley, the idea being that if you’ve started a company and it didn’t take off, you learned a ton in the process and presumably won’t make the same mistakes again. Now we’re saying rejection is a good thing — by potential customers, investors, etc. So if you’re really “lucky,” you experience all kinds of rejection while you’re running your startup, followed by failure of the whole enterprise when you have to shut the doors — all of which “builds character.” That must take its toll; yet it teaches humility, and perhaps that, combined with resilience, acts in a kind of Darwinian way to ensure that only the fittest survive in the startup jungle.

  • http://twitter.com/mattamyers Matthew A Myers

    I’ve given myself a timeframe of 3-5 years. If I’m still getting fully trampled on then I’ll fully pursue another passion of mine.

  • http://twitter.com/jcbruin Jon Chang

    Do you have any thoughts about pursuing an MBA (ie. pros/cons/advice)? If you’ve blogged about the topic, mea culpa.

    Thanks!

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  • http://twitter.com/mattamyers Matthew A Myers

    Since reading this yesterday I’ve been ramping up towards being rejected at least once per day now. No joke. I’m keeping a log too.

    Thanks Chris.

  • Skier

    No falls. No balls.

  • Joel Chang

    hey Chris, thank you for your encouraging and inspiring note of your career experience.
    I’m in the process of transitioning from the non-profit to the private sector; I’ve had 3 final interviews for reputable tech and entertainment companies, but they went with a candidate w/ pertinent experience.
    With all these experiences, I’ve learned to live, learn and move on. I certainly appreciate your blog and keep ‘em coming!

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  • http://twitter.com/dgnorton dgnorton

    I stopped pushing myself hard on skis somewhere around age 35. The body can only take so many jumps gone wrong.

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  • http://christinetsai.tumblr.com/ Christine Tsai

    There’s that quote, “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.” Definitely true.

  • http://twitter.com/DaveWBaldwin Dave W Baldwin

    Your information is comforting. My first ‘grand plan’ back in ’08 involved the ‘scared to share’ factor. Ironically, it was two years ago, August I gave the interested seed investor 30 days to do it, or I’d go elsewhere. Of course, the Money Market Debacle happened within those 30. Thanks again!

  • http://steamcatapult.com/ Dave Pinsen

    It’s amazing where persistence and three Ivy League degrees will get you these days.

  • http://terezan.tumblr.com/ Tereza

    Matt here’s an idea. Come up with a delicious prize to reward yourself for when you hit 100 rejections, 500 rejections, etc….

  • http://terezan.tumblr.com/ Tereza

    As an off-pattern bet, I am looking for people who have the balls to take a bet on me.

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  • marketeer

    Thanks Chris! As a current job seeker I am getting rejected on a daily basis. Good to know I’m just ambitious! Anybody that wants to hire a expert start-up marketer give me a shout.

  • http://www.rjjohnston.me RJ Johnston

    The trick is getting to a point where you are presenting something worthy of acceptance or rejection

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  • Ardy

    so exsiting to me！

  • http://www.socialvolt.com Scott Oppliger

    Great article Chris. I always say that my high school dating career prepared me well for a career as an entrepreneur – I got used to hearing “no”! As Scott says below, thick skin and persistence are mandatory.

    I appreciate a quick efficient rejection as opposed to a long drawn out tease. My advice to investors: know thyself. If you don’t have the appetite or interest, don’t bother.

    Best,
    Scott Oppliger | CEO
    SocialVolt, Inc.

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  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    My limit is 10 years. But the start date is always tomorrow.

  • http://technbiz.blogspot.com paramendra

    “I probably got rejected by someone once a day last week alone.” Maybe you s-t-i-l-l have a strange resume. :-)

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  • Peter C.

    I believe in the platitudes written here but I think it would help a lot of people (particularly entrepreneurs) if you highlighted how much fail you went through before success. It would give more texture behind the type of travails you went through.

    Everybody knows entrepreneurship is hard. But how hard? Days/Months/Years? Who shot you down? Did anybody ever tell you your ideas were crap? At which times did you recognize you had to go against the grain?

    Lastly, my feeling is that the reason why people reject a resume (as opposed to person) is because it’s easier. Understanding a person and their strengths and validating them is really difficult if you’re just talking to them for a few hours or asking them puzzle questions. And yet we still try to glean whatever we can from crappy in-person interviews. This is why hires through referrals tend to be the most successful: It’s not that everyone knows someone awesome, but that their work/quality has been validated.

    I think most people are not great at identifying quality candidates by in-person interviews so they take other people’s word for it (ie. prior companies and schools). I can’t tell you how many times interviews have left me unimpressed, especially when they’re reading it for the first time right there.

  • Saurel

    This article is enlightening to me. I really think that people who reject my ideas and me are a big part of my future successes, they make way for the good stuff.

    My name is Saurel Dominique and one day I would like to gather all the people who rejected me and help them minimize rejecting great talents in their future recruitment.

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  • Wang Vera

    love it!

  • David Webb

    We are being rejected because we don’t want to go the VC route. We are trying to find funding through one or two angel investors for our tech startup.

  • http://www.ryanborn.net ryanborn

    Amazing! Just wrote a similar post on this over at http://ryanborn.net . It seems we think alike !

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  • http://anyessays.com/writing/essays essays online

    Thanks for the suggestion – I’ll make sure it’s included in the thinking.

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