I was on another “first date” yesterday...one of those experiences that come my way occasionally because I belong to an online matching website. At one point in the conversation, I referred to my job-search efforts in the last couple years, lamenting, I guess, about how much rejection had been involved. She observed, “well, that’s just part of the process, isn’t it?”
Actually, as I was attempting to be serious and engage in some emotional self-disclosure, this remark struck me as rejection-like in itself: certainly dismissive of my frequent feelings of rejection as I go through this process. I’m not so sure there’s going to be a second date.
Also, yesterday, in response to an email to an old friend in Minnesota where I had stated that I was now “officially discouraged” after two years of attempting to land a permanent position, I was regaled with a story about Thomas Edison.
“I never allow myself to become discouraged under any circumstances.”
After inventing the light bulb and establishing power stations throughout the US and the world, Edison sold all of his holdings in the lighting industry. Using his liquidated assets, he plunged into a venture to increase the yield of iron from New Jersey ore by crushing it and passing it through electromagnets. The process never worked, costing Edison ten years and most of his personal fortune. But Edison had an amazing ability of turning liabilities into assets. Edison used his rock-crushing machinery to enter the cement industry, revolutionizing that industry and becoming the third largest producer of cement in the US. Guess who poured the foundation of Yankee Stadium?
I guess I should be wondering what it is that’s going on...for when I expect someone to “get” a feeling I’m expressing, what I seem to find is someone unable to listen to my experience. Oh, for someone to listen to me! To get me! I guess that what this blog is for: someplace I can go to talk, with, hopefully, very little chance of rejection. Actually, the stories about Edison are pervasive:
Thomas Edison was asked if he felt discouraged by the 1,073 failures he had before inventing the electric light bulb. He said “I did not fail 1,073 times. I found 1,073 ways not to do it.”
It appears that I’m on my way to being successful in finding about a thousand ways to not get a job!