BOUNCING BACK, BOUNCING FORWARD

How do we become agile at handling rejections and failures? Be positive in what you are doing, but be aware that you will face rejection

- Ambi Parameswaran

By Ambi Parameswaran

Best-selling author and founder brand-building. com, Ambi Parameswaran’s latest book Spring — Bouncing Back From Rejection looks at how to handle rejection and bounce back

IT WAS AN urgent request for a meeting. These two kids, I still call them kids since they are my son’s friends, had got into the start-up ecosystem a couple years before. They used to come and meet me when they were stuck. And in a few previous ‘panic meetings’ I have had to guide them back to what they were wanting to do, and not get diverted. But this time it seemed more serious.

The two of them entered my office and after the usual pleasantries asked me, “Uncle we need a Customer Value Proposition for our offering. And we need it like now!”. After a few cups of tea and a pack or two of Marie biscuits they felt they had an answer to their question. They later called and confirmed that their meeting with their VC went well.

Two years later they made the headlines when their company was acquired by a large conglomerate. I would not want to mention names here, but it can be any start-up and any mentor. If you sit with the founders for a chat you will discover all of them had a zig-zag path to success. And the first five years were a struggle.

In my new book SPRING — Bouncing Back From Rejection I have devoted one chapter to the story of a start-up that went through 100 pitches to VCs of all shades of green, black and blue, before they figured out what to do. They were lucky to meet a mentor who gave them some very valuable inputs.