Rejection Isn't the End.

“Never give up. Today is harsh. Tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.”?—?Jack Ma

I have a normal, middle-class upbringing?—?just like millions of other fellow Indians. I have always been advised to be settled in life?—?to study well, to have a job that pays the bill, a home, a car . . . I have experienced successes all through my life?—?been a great student at school and college, worked and won excellence awards in a multinational company?—?in short, the typical middle-class Indian.

Sometime last year though, I dropped a bombshell into my otherwise perfect life. I quit my high-paying corporate job, to pursue my dream of starting up a social enterprise. Life has never been the same since.

Vicious turns burnt me and I started experiencing rejection from all fronts?—?my financials took a beating, people who I believed were wellwishers and best friends started to avoid being around me, parents and relatives crucified me, many of my forays into tackling social problems kept meeting roadblocks.

According to the social dictionary?—?I was a DISASTER.

I was frustrated, irritated, and hated myself for the decisions I took. Maybe I could reverse my year and get back the perfect Indian life, I thought to myself.

I was faced with one failure after another. I still kept going. I was broken, but, I never allowed myself to stay broken. I ploughed on. I never gave up.

Sometimes, success is all about surviving longer than the others.

Over this year-long journey, I saw other people like me, quit their jobs, get into social entrepreneurship, toil for a month or two, and give up?—?get back to a job, put their dreams into the backburner, and act as if everything was a bad dream.

I have met amazing people with incredible dreams and extraordinary startup ideas?—?but, when the day ends, they get back to working in their 9-to-5 job, waiting for that ever-elusive moment when they finally gather courage to pursue their destiny. People keep telling me all the time that they would like to change the country overnight?—?they come up with great plans, pursue it for a month and then give up.

People keep saying: “If only I had more money . . . If only I had more time . . . If only I had . . .”

Excuses that supposedly mask their lack of conviction. Complaints that will never take them anywhere. In the end, I realized that we have lived and achieved inside our comfort zones, so much so that we fear failure. I did. When I failed over and over in areas beyond my comfort zone, I realized it has only made me grow better and better.

Get out of your comfort zone. Make a move.

I’ve been in the grind enough to know that you can only become better at your craft if you work, every single day and night, irrespective of weekends or weekdays, over and over again. There is no magic potion?—?you have to keep hustling, take failure with a pinch of salt, accept the bruise, learn and push forward. Iterate repeatedly, and create a one-degree positive shift with every iteration.

After all, you just need to get it right once.

If you really believe in something?—?you will have to push forward, no matter what. Your parents may not support you, your friends may mock at you, naysayers may write your epitaph?—?that’s not important. Do you believe it? Then, keep banging that door. It may take a month, a year, two years?—?but if you keep pounding that door hard enough, and long enough?—?it will crack open.

So, go out there and pursue what you want to. When you are old and on your death bed, you don’t want to have any regrets in life?—?trust me, nothing will pain you more than a dream you burnt because you didn’t have the courage to pursue it.

Rejection is not the end. A dying dream is.