The other day, I was speaking to a good friend of mine whom I had recently met through social media. Among all the things we spoke about spanning her post-partum life, motherhood, marriage and faith, one thing I yearned to ask, was her entrepreneurship journey. I finally popped the question at the latter part of our conversation.
She began by telling me how intentional she had been, deciding by level 200 that she was not going to wait to join the job search after completing school, but was going to make sure that she pursued her future through and through. Her dad had lived the most part of his life outside Ghana, and her mum had very little formal education. How was she going to get a well-paid job after school when they both had very little connections?
Her zeal and thought process led her to apply for an intern role at a Human Resource(HR) firm. After all, she was studying HR at the university and the goal was to work at a multinational corporation as the HR manager.
All attempts to work at this HR firm as an intern failed and her presence only irritated them the more. The first day she showed up, she was turned down and told that they had already picked out the people who were to work there and that she should try again some time. But the next day she would show up and still be rejected. For five consecutive days, she always got to the company before everyone else. And everyday they will turn her down with the same excuse that they already had the interns they wanted.
On the fifth day, after seeing her persistence, they decided to give her a shot and asked her to come the following week. And that is how the HR firm connected her to two banks to work for and opened up a third opportunity for her at a multinational corporation! Wow! This friend of mine truly defied the odds.
Unlike her, most of us give up at the slightest difficulty when faced with an opportunity. We have no time to pursue our goals to the latter. We feel that when we are turned down an offer, it wasn’t meant for us. But that is not always the case.
You see, when you are declined an opportunity, you must never take no for an answer. You must always go back to the drawing board and plan your second and third coming. You must prove to whoever said no that you deserve the opportunity. You must strategize and plan your grand entry into that particular place, and show them what you bring to the table. You must defy the odds that are up against you.
It is true, that not every good door is a God-door. But it is also true, that some opportunities are only possible when you push the door open! And that will only happen when you defy the odds. So come on, go for it!
