Rejection and Failure in Academe: How Do You Deal?

As academicians, it seems as though we are gluttons for punishment. We feast on rejection. We are the Hannibal Lecters of disappointment and failure. It comes with our territory. I would guess that only performers (actors, singers, dancers, and stand-up comedians) encounter more rejection than we do. Consider the number of opportunities for rejection:

1. Articles, book chapters, and books submitted for review
(Personal Note: During my first couple of years at Johns Hopkins, I accumulated enough rejections from journal editors to wallpaper my office. About 22 years later, my 1st book on humor in teaching--Professors Are from Mars, Students Are from Snickers--garnered 30 publisher rejections. My acceptances have been disproportionately small compared to my rejections.)
2. Proposals for research funding
(Personal Note: With an 80-90% rejection rate for federal RFP submissions, how can one not experience a life of rejection in a research university?)
3. Promotion and tenure review
(Personal Note: It doesn't get any more demeaning than the promotion process. Even for an overachiever like me, when you're promoted, it's anti-climactic. I will never forget the day the committee met to review my credentials for "professor." No one ever called to tell me the decision. I finally called at the end of the day to find out what happened.)
4. Teaching
(Personal Note: Getting whacked by your students on end-of-course evaluations is not a pretty sight. When you put an enormous effort into your teaching and receive personal attacks by a few students, it always hurts. Peer observation can also be a humbling experience.)
5. Miscellaneous
(Personal Note: There are so many other ways our bosses (chairs, associate deans, and deans) can undermine our spirit and demoralize us in the way they treat us; there are too many to count. Academe has found so many ways to discourage their best and brightest faculty and devour their newbies. It should be ashamed.)

If none of the above applies to you, consider yourself blessed beyond description. For those of you to whom one or more of those forms of rejection apply, how do you respond? Just buck up, shrug it off, and keep on moving? That's easier said than done.

Obviously, perseverance is involved. I'd like to pass on an inspirational quote that I present in my keynotes on stress management that's in DVD form. It's from one of America's most creative screenwriters and actors: Sylvester Stallone. The context is Rocky Balboa talking to his son, who is discouraged, hates his job, and blames his dad for his predicament. Here's the quote:

Rocky Balboa (2006):

“I don’t care how tough you are.
It [life] will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.
You, me, or nobody is going to hit as hard as life.

But it ain’t about how hard you hit;
it’s about how hard you can get hit,
and keep movin’ forward.
How much you can take and keep movin’ forward.
That’s how winning is done.

Now if you know what you’re worth,
now go out and get what you’re worth.
But you gotta be willing to take the hits and not pointin’ fingers, sayin’ you’re not where you wanna be because of him or her or anybody.
Cowards do that and that ain’t you.
You’re better than that.”

This quote is such an eloquent expression of what to consider when we face disappointments, rejection, and failure inside academe as well as outside. I hope it will touch your mind and heart as it did mine. Stay focused, honor your commitments, and "keep movin' forward."

COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC