“The majority of men [and women] meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those that fail.”
-- Napoleon Hill
In my experience as a coach and consultant, resilience in the face of rejection is the single biggest factor in differentiating successful from unsuccessful academics.
- If you’ve failed your comps, reschedule them.
- If your dissertation proposal failed the first-round critique, meet with each member of your committee and formulate a new plan.
- If you’ve struck out on the job market this year, publish that article so that you’ll look good next year.
- If your article has been rejected, send it to a lower-tier journal rather than the rubbish bin.
- If your grant has been rejected, remind yourself of the low percentage of submissions that get funded, make the reviewers changes, and resubmit during the next cycle.
Unless you get back on the horse you’ll never get to the end of the trail.
Comments