Episode 8 – Jia Jiang – How to Overcome Rejection

The pain of rejection doesn’t have to immobilize your life any more!

Today’s episode features Jia Jiang, an amazing man who grew up in China, not moving to the United States until he was 12 years old. He’s taken his appreciation for the culture and history of his homeland to heart and uses the energy his background provides to fuel his life and entrepreneurial efforts.

The 100 days of rejection experiment

Jia describes himself before his journey into rejection as a shy and fearful person. That’s exactly why he took an intentional journey into rejection. He determined that for 100 days straight he would do something that would cause another person to reject a request he made. He did some pretty crazy things as a result. He went to local airport and asked a pilot if he could fly his plane, when Jia had never flown a plane before. He asked a Professor at a prestigious college if he could teach his class. He asked people if he could play soccer in their backyard. Day after day he put himself in situations where people could easily reject his request, just so he could learn what it meant to be rejected, and how to overcome it.

His experiment paid off. Jia says he learned that people were not rejecting him, they were rejecting his idea. And more importantly, he learned that their rejection didn’t mean that he had to agree with them. He might still like the idea and want to do it, and that is OK. In fact, it’s more than OK, it’s a great way to develop courage.

Jia also learned that the belief that people are born bold, or shy, or charismatic, or persuasive is not true. Courage is what is needed, and courage is a muscle that can be grown day after day by exercising it. The 100 day journey into rejection taught Jia that courage he could develop his own courage so that by the end, the man who once described himself as “shy” could say that the world is his playground and he’s no longer afraid.

Jia Jiang is ready to help you overcome your rejection experiences. He’s written a new book, “Rejection Proof: How to Beat Fear.” It tells the full story of his 100 day experiment and outlines the lessons he learned as he took step after step, day after day. For listeners of “Crank It Up” Jia is offering a special gift package when you pre-order his Kindle version of the book. You can find out more details on that generous offer at www.FearBuster.com

Here is Jia’s bio:

Jia Jiang is the founder of 100 Days of Rejection, speaker and author of a soon to be released book Rejection Proof (Crown Publishing) on how to overcome rejection. Several years after Jia Jiang’s career in the corporate, he took a life altering risk and stepped into the unknown world of entrepreneurship, which resulted in everyone’s biggest fear… REJECTION. Jia has since took to the stage and sharing his message of overcoming the fear of rejection with people and how you can use rejection to create opportunities for yourself.

He gave a TedX talk that was very popular and his book has been given endorsements by 7 fellow New York Times Best Seller like Dan Ariely, Nancy Duarte, and Chris Guillebeau (See complete list here). Jia lives in San Jose, California

OUTLINE OF THIS GREAT EPISODE

* Jia Jiang’s roots in China (he calls it a “wonderland”)

* The fascination that is China – and lessons from the Great Wall of China

* What does it mean to be “rejected?”

* Jia’s rejection journey as a startup founder and tech entrepreneur

* “100 days of rejection”

* The ways we “run” when rejection comes our way

* Learning from rejection

* How Jia but “fun” into rejection

* How your confidence can impact others

* The toll rejection takes on the average perso...