Rejection as Rocket Fuel

Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team and cried in his room for hours.

But here's what nobody tells you about that moment. He didn't just decide to work harder.

He made a deal with himself that changed everything. Every single person who made the team

became his measuring stick. He'd imagine their faces during every sprint,

every shot, every early morning practice. Walt Disney got fired from a newspaper

for lacking imagination. Oprah was told she was unfit for television. Stephen King's first novel got rejected

thirty times. He threw it in the trash. His wife pulled it out.

The pattern isn't about bouncing back. It's about using rejection as rocket fuel.