How to use rejection to move forward

I’ll never forget the sadness that was conveyed in Cheryll’s words as she politely, but carefully, rejected what would be my very last submission to a popular testing magazine. Me and Cheryll had history. I’d submitted 10 articles to the magazine, and 10 times she had sent me the rejection email.

It wasn’t her rejected me, it was the editor, but she knew my pain. She was the messenger.

It was yet another failure in my career. Trust me I’ve made loads. But I’m not one to give up.

It was a sad day for both me and Cheryll. She did her work well. I tried and tried. But I took the advice, the feedback and the rejection and did something with it.

In the months that followed I used the feedback and energy to work with Rosie at The Software Testing Club to launch The Testing Planet ; the best newspaper for testers….ever!

It was an epic ride and the initial idea was sown by the 10 rejections I’d had from this other magazine.

I figured that if I couldn’t be published in some of the mainstream magazines then there would also be others who couldn’t too, even with pretty good articles and interesting topics.

So we wanted to create a platform (newspaper) where unknown authors could get published. Where people who hadn’t spoken at conferences could get their words out to others.

The rejection from one magazine lead partly to the birth of a new one.

I found the old copies of The Testing Planet whilst clearing out my study and I was struck with how proud I still feel about what we achieved.

So don’t let anyone hold you back. If you get rejected keep trying. Create your own work. Ask the community. Don’t give up. Create something new.

And why not check out the Testing Club community and Testing Planet : http://www.ministryoftesting.com/

(Note: I’m no longer involved with Testing Planet and I’m not even sure if the paper is still being produced)