It Takes 9 NOs for 1 YES

Everybody says it’s needed but it truly is. Life is hard. Nobody says “yes” the first time no matter how awesome, easy it is. Whether that is applying for a job, launching a new program, being a Morman missionary, or doing sales.

The Event – We had a great event yesterday where we raised money for Dreams for Kids, a charity that helps disadvantaged youth.

For our event, we had 75 volunteers from Up With People, a program of 17-29 year olds that travel the globe volunteering for various charities.

Their task this week was to go across DC with signs and clip-boards to get people to sign up for GovLoop. Every new member we would donate $5 to Dreams for Kids.

They spread out over DC from McPherson Square to L’enfant Plaza to Capitol Hill. In total, they got over 300 sign-ups which was awesome.

The Lesson – After the day, we had a recap where we heard from volunteers about their experience. Most of the kids said they were initially shocked how rude most people were and how they were ignored. People faked phone calls, ran the other direction, complained about their accents, and

But they all said after an hour, they got in a rhythm and were no longer offended – they just did the math. It took 9 No’s to get to 1 Yes.

And I think that’s a super valuable life skill. In life, you get rejected a lot. But you have to keep going. And to do anything good or great, you will get more than your fair share of rejections.

But you’ll get more Yes’s too!