[joe_the_user]

Is there something special about getting one rejection each day?

I've been doing part-time canvasing and I can accumulate far more than 30 rejections in the less than an hour.

But I still have no-rejection days. Does it matter?

[David]

It's not about being rejected every single day. It's about learning to accept rejection more easily, which it sounds like you're doing fine on with part-time canvasing. (Or perhaps you could cope easily before that.)

I'd take a bet that you're not the type this was designed for. For some, being rejected at all is a huge blow to ego, confidence, and self-esteem, which can have serious effects on mood and productivity, for instance.

For these people, getting rejected more often means that each rejection is less significant and reinforces the knowledge that rejection happens. That is much healthier, and I'd hypothesize that it can increase one's average level of happiness. (It also gives an individual much more control over himself -- or takes it away from others, at any rate. Same thing.)

[zephyrfalcon]

"For some, being rejected at all is a huge blow to ego, confidence, and self-esteem, which can have serious effects on mood and productivity, for instance. For these people, getting rejected more often means that each rejection is less significant and reinforces the knowledge that rejection happens."

Yes, but this sort of "therapy" only works if you have the right thought patterns to go with the rejection (i.e. not taking it too personally, realizing it's not that big of a deal, etc). It may not work so well if you (were raised to) believe that you have to please others in order to feel good about yourself. In that case, each rejection is just more evidence that "you suck", and you enter a downward spiral.

[David]

That's what makes the game hard, and also what makes it worth it. The key is that repeated exposure leads to desensitization.

Fear of rejection is no different from other irrational (or at least maladaptive) fears -- and those often _are_ treated by repeated exposure to the source of the fear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desensitization_(psychology)

[joe_the_user]

No,

I have had quite a bit of trouble with rejection at different times.

My suspicion is that everyone who doesn't have some up-front, obvious fear of rejection has some other kind of fear buried somewhere in their psyche.

[stellar678]

I think a big part of the value is experiencing rejection in a variety of scenarios, not just experiencing similar rejection repeatedly.

[nandemo]

I think the idea is that if you're not getting rejected you're not trying hard enough i.e. you're asking too little.

[modeless]

Rejection isn't really the goal. The goal is to find opportunities, and rejections are the indicator of whether you're trying hard enough or not. So if you're happy with the opportunities you're finding there's no need to seek out more rejection.

[arisey]

Excellent point. It is so useful for a lean startup situation - the objective is to find a scalable business model. Rejections are great to pivot to the right path!