How Getting Rejected 40 Times by the Same Company Taught Me The Secret to True Happiness

Think about the last time you were drowning in your own tears, burying your snotty nose in tissues, and curling up into a big, blubbering human ball.

You don’t even need to tell me what caused you to descend to such low spirits – I already know.

Things didn’t end up going your way, and feeling completely helpless and hopeless, you collapsed into a corner and bawled your eyes out. “Am I unlucky?” you wailed. “Is the universe conspiring against me?”

I’m right; am I not?

What if I told you that even though life may throw a few unexpected wrenches into your plans, the universe is actually working in your favor for your greatest good. But instead of expressing gratitude, you decide to throw a tantrum that leaves you under a depressing dark cloud for days.

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!

There’s a reason why there was a barricade between you and your desires. There’s something far more superior that awaits you on a different avenue, and in order for you to stumble upon this blissful path of happiness, you must submit to “The Law of Acceptance” throughout life’s so-called “trials and tribulations.”

It look a long time for me to discover happiness through “The Law of Acceptance.” You see, I once desperately wanted a job at a popular digital company – let’s call it Agency A. Agency A had immense brand recognition and a company culture that was known for employing misfits and “cool weird” creatives – a perfect fit for someone as bizarre as I am.

I applied to Agency A nearly 40 times over a course of two years, and out of those 40 times, I’ve managed to secure five phone interviews, and only three of those screenings materialized into in-person interviews. Guess how many of those in-person meetings led to an actual job offer?

Not a single one.

Back then, I fought tooth and nail against life’s blockages against my dreams of working at Agency A. “Law of Acceptance” my big hairy behind – I was going to get a job at Agency A and no one was going to stop me. I even had the company name emblazoned across my vision board and I wrote down the exact salary I wanted to receive at Agency A. Keep that in mind.

I’m pretty sure Life (L, by the way, is purposely capitalized for personification) was getting sick of me at this point. “Good grief! This girl won’t let up! We’re going to have to send in some reinforcements,” Life, I’m sure, said in response to my relentlessness.

That’s when Life had me stumbling upon an employee of Agency A. It was, I thought, a sudden stroke of luck! I gushed over how much I wanted to work at Agency A and how lucky she was for getting a position at my dream job. With a vacant, deadpan expression, the woman said, “Um, it’s a sweatshop over here. People are running the hell out of Agency A as quickly as they can. Hell, I’m trying to get the hell out, too!”

She seemed miserable – her description of Agency A fell short of my idealized expectations.

“And the salary is deplorable,” she continued. The tragic pay was far lower than the desired salary I wrote on my vision board.

My heart sank. But my spirits didn’t deflate because of her horrific review of Agency A, it shattered because I suddenly realized that this chance encounter wasn’t my pathway to Agency A. 

It was, instead, a rude awakening – a message from above – saying, “Hello! Earth to you! That’s what we were trying to tell you all along! That’s why you haven’t been able to get a job at Agency A! Agency A sucks.”

I suddenly remembered getting “bad vibes” when I visited Agency A’s offices, but ignoring the red flags because I so desperately wanted to work there.

Though I didn’t completely abandon my Agency A mission, I became more open-minded to other companies that I overlooked – I put my eggs in more baskets.

I finally began to let go. I stopped fighting the currents of life and “accepted” where the ebb and flow wanted to take me. I had to trust that life had something better in store for me.

Soon after succumbing to “The Law of Acceptance,” I got a call from a new company – let’s call it Better-Than-Agency-A. It had brand recognition, it had the same “misfits are welcome” type of company culture, and guess what, the pay was exactly what I had written on my vision board!

I ended up getting the job.

So ask yourself, when things don’t go your way, how come you tend to see it as a “curse” instead of a clear sign that a better path has been carved for you? Why don’t you perceive it as Life pulling you away from someone or something that is less-than-beneficial for you?

Why cry, yell, and mope when something far more superior is in store?

Once you start seeing these “obstacles” as “blessings in disguise,” your utopia awaits you – just as long as you stop fighting life and succumb to “The Law of Acceptance.” That is the secret to happiness.