Jack Ma, the creator of Alibaba and one of the richest men in the world with an estimated wealth of $ 25 billion said this:
“I failed 3 times in college. I applied 30 times to get a job but I have always been rejected. When KFC came to China for the first time, we were 24 to apply and I was the only one to be dismissed. I wanted to go into the police and I was the only one not to be accepted… I applied 10 times to return to Harvard University USA and I was rejected. Never give up because you failed once, know that failure is sometimes out of the way to reach your intended route!!”
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We’ve worked in several recruitment offices, and we have witnessed the ’emotional rollercoaster’ that recruiters go on, every time that they:
– receive an offer from a client
– make an offer to a candidate
– take a call from a client / candidate, 3 days into the candidate’s start date
…We have to be honest, we can’t remember [the last time] going through these emotions. You will never see us ‘sweating buckets’ when it comes to making an offer to a candidate, or taking a call from a client 3 days into the candidates’ new adventure, for fear of a ‘drop out’.
The attitude at Jonothan Bosworth Recruitment Specialists is this: if you ‘manage the process’ properly, if you treat your client and candidate with ‘respect’ and if you continue to ‘ask questions’, then you should be able to lay your head down at the end of any given evening and sleep well ‘knowing’ that you have done everything you can, in order to conclude proceedings with a ‘win-win’ scenario…. There is no real need to look anything like the guy in the picture above… [Laugh Out Loud]
Let’s be pragmatic though; as with any walk of life… whether you are an ‘Apprentice’ in your first job, or whether you are ‘Jack Ma’ the founder of Alibaba – you are going to have to fail in order to succeed.
Michael Jordan – has missed so many shots, he’s lost count, but the difference between him and any other basketballer, is that he was ‘prepared’ to fail over and over again in order to be successful.
Sport & Business are synonymous in our opinion, and once you start to ‘play the game’, you start to realise that there is nothing to fear. You are your biggest challenger; it is ‘you’ who will decide how long you fight, and how hard to push and what you are prepared to go through.
Back to recruitment. If you view your ‘wins’ like aces in a pack of cards and your obstacles like ‘any other card’ in the pack – you will soon develop a ‘thick skin’ which enables you to continue to ‘turn the cards’ in the pre-ordained knowledge that your successful outcome is inevitable.
However, whilst we have all read, heard & seen thousands of motivational speakers, motivational books and motivational quotes – it is advisable to apply some ‘realism to your dreams’…
…If you are 4 feet tall, it is unlikely that you’ll become the next Olympic high jump champion – so it is important to find your niche, and work it as hard as you can. This is the bit that we are not told in class; it is vital that we all work to our strengths, and keep working them.
So that begs the next question: is extreme success driven by nature, or nuture?
That is a conversation for another day!!
In the meantime however – work hard – and suppress your fears. It is the only way to grow.
If you are a candidate looking for your next challenge, or if you are a hiring manager looking for a new recruitment partner, please call us on +44(0)845 299 6369, or via email ‘here’