[defrost]

> How many people don't get a second chance?

The vast majority of people attempting to get published during the "Golden Age of Science Fiction" for starters.

Even reading the autobiographical writings of those that became big names you'll find a seemingly endless runway of rejection before liftoff, cancelled acceptances, demands for rewrites, multiple publisher approaches, etc.

One publisher getting cold feet isn't the end of the world, ask any writer that's made it.