I'm sure by now we've all heard the stories about Thomas Edison, the man who invented the incandescent light bulb. After failing 10,000 times, someone asked him about how he dealt with the failures.
"I didn't fail 10,000 times," he said. "I found 10,000 ways not to create the light bulb."
Or something like that.
At work yesterday, there was an opportunity in my department (at my day job) for at least three people to do a year-long training, much of it in the field. I apologize I will have to be a little cryptic at this point, for I cannot disclose the company nor the details of the opportunity. Over fifty people applied for this opportunistic position. Only a handful were chosen to be interviewed.
A young lady I know was quite upset she was not chosen for this--BTW, I did not apply for this opportunity, for it required a lot of travel commitment, and I did not see it as a move I should be taking in my career.
Anyway, the lady asked me what more she could do next time to be chosen.
This struck me as odd, for I have had a complete turnaround in my thinking over the past few years. Over fifteen years ago, I spent a lot of time querying agents, the vast majority of which rejected me outright. I felt like a failure, even though I kept writing and kept querying, all without any positive results.
Hence the reason I pursued the indie publishing arena. Instead of waiting for someone to pick me, I have picked myself.
Choose yourself, as James Altucher says quite often on his blog and podcasts.
So that's what I did. And that's what I do.
Is that what everyone should do? I don't know. Sorry, that's the best answer I can come up with. I don't know.
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