Idea Stage: Widely-Supported (what does this mean? Click here.)
Read time: 5 minutes
The 15 Day Rejection Challenge was an experimental challenge I had done inspired by Jia Jiang, who did the challenge for 100 days.
The core idea is to learn rejection isn't so bad and that surprisingly, you can get a lot of things when you just ask.
I personally, at the time, was looking for work, driving LYFT in San Francisco and realized I needed to be a little more selfish in my LYFT rides. I had to get to the point.
"Driving LYFT is NOT my passion. Can my young eager marketing mind solve any of your problems?"
As you can imagine, in a short LYFT ride, getting to that topic can be easily thrown under when trying to be tactful in conversation. So I needed to be aggressive.
How I laid out the challenge:
I started with social accountability, I figured this was the best way to actually do it every day. I also invested in the buddy system, I started a Google Spreadsheet where eager followers could track my progress and where other challenge seekers could join me.
Unfortunately, no one actually joined me. A strange request, indeed, but I received many individual messages talking about how many others wanted to do it too.
Well.
Why not go do it then?
Below is a photo of my spreadsheet. I tried to record the dialogues with whomever I interacted with as well as I could, but I am sure it was a bit fuzzy to the actual thing.
First off, yes, that is a skip on Day 5.
I will touch on that in my wrap-up, part of my recommendations for those curious woe-goers whom may be interested in their own challenge.
Pre-challenge goals:
Ride in a fire truck
Ride in a police car
Make my own subway sub
Walk into a building and ask for an interview
Ride in a Tesla
Reviewing my spreadsheet, somewhere around midway, my notes began to get a little sloppy. They were less detailed and you can even tell, I honestly, ever even finished filling out the spreadsheet.
So plenty of room to grow on this.
Accomplishments:
I made a deal with Paul Buchheit (inventor of Gmail)
I climbed around on a fire truck
Met Jia Jiang out of complete random serendipity
Amazingly enough, through pure chance and luck, I was at a conference in Boston and out of pure luck I am walking through the conference hall and I see this man, Jia Jiang, just sitting there.
It was one of those moments. *rubs eyes* "Is that..."
"What the hell?"
*Selfie ensues & signature ensues*
My challenges:
Some of my biggest challenges were just doing the damn thing. A few of my tasks such as "asking for compliments" was by far one of the weirdest and difficult things I have done.
It was 11:30 pm and I was just trying to squeeze in the challenge before the end of the day. I was visiting my cousin at her university so I went to the school library. Multiple people thought I was suicidal. That's just a really weird thing to get mistaken for.
My Recommendations:
1. Do it with a buddy
Surprisingly, despite actually trying to get people to do it with me, no one jumped in. The irony of my first rejection. Having a friend adds the dynamic of shared experiences with someone, which I highly recommend.
2. Record it live on FB
I kept tabs through Snapchat and Google spreadsheets for the first few parts. It was interesting, but doing it live is SO much more engaging.
3. Do each challenge at least three times
Doing each task only once, I found, somewhat anti-climatic. I was getting myself worked up over a task and in 30 seconds it was over. Plus, what if you got a bad egg? Do it three times.
4. Commit the time to do it
For me, I let my busy San Francisco life take over. I found myself knocking out tasks at 11:00 pm to beat my midnight deadline. I don't recommend this. Let yourself have fun with it.
That's pretty much it folks.
Happy challenging, this one is a blast!