99.9% Of Your Creative Work Will Get Rejected

Ah. Rejection. As common in the creative business as leaves are to trees. Everyday work goes up in front of a team, internal or external, and it gets killed for whatever reason. Slaughtered. Eliminated. Gone. And it’s always that idea you thought would never get killed. Because it’s so good. Because it’s 100% on brand. You have the strategy – the planning – all the ducks lined up so that this perfect idea will live. But alas, it goes up in flames.

So what do you do?

You come up with another idea.

I can’t tell you the amount of times I have seen true and tried professionals get caught up in this because someone somewhere said no to their idea. A true creative has another ten ideas lined up for each one that gets killed.

You see, the key is that you must not fall in love with your ideas. They are there as seeds. Not all seeds will grow.

In the business where ideas are quite literally our currency, it’s imperative that you get back up on that horse and ride again. Remember, sooner or later you will hit that .1 %. But you will always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

Nir Bashan is an executive creative director/managing director with over 18 years of advertising, entertainment and business development experience. He writes on topics covering advertising, media, creative solutions and workforce management. http://www.nirbashan.com/blog | nir.bashan1@gmail.com