How to build resilience in the face of repeated rejections or setbacks in business
Rejection in business can be a challenging hurdle, but it doesn’t have to derail your path to success. This article presents expert-backed strategies for transforming setbacks into stepping stones for growth and resilience. Discover practical approaches to reframe your mindset, leverage feedback, and build the mental fortitude needed to thrive in the competitive world of business.
- View Rejection as Valuable Data
- Reframe Setbacks as Progress Indicators
- Transform Rejections into Market Research
- Focus on Customer Value Creation
- Embrace Failures as Learning Opportunities
- Measure Success Through Daily Momentum
- Craft Compelling Stories, Not Just Pitches
- Document Daily Wins for Perspective
- Separate Rejection from Personal Identity
- Cultivate Awareness of Emotional Reactions
- See Challenges as Growth Opportunities
- Pivot Strategies Based on Feedback
- Understand Rejection is Not Personal
- Stay Present and Use Available Resources
- Seek External Perspectives for Clarity
- Turn Setbacks into Product Innovation
- Analyze Failures for Future Success
View Rejection as Valuable Data
In the early days of scaling our healthcare IT platform, rejection became part of the routine. Hospital networks wouldn’t respond, pilot programs got delayed, and we lost a key contract renewal because we weren’t FHIR-compliant at the time. It was more than a business setback; it felt like years of relationship-building vanished overnight.
What changed everything was a mental shift: I stopped tying rejection to self-worth and started viewing it as data. Each “no” became a signal about timing, positioning, or product maturity. In healthcare, you’re not just selling technology; you’re asking institutions to entrust you with sensitive data and patient safety. That demands trust, and trust takes time.
We started measuring progress differently—celebrating progressive “no’s,” where we gained feedback or made it deeper into the evaluation funnel. It helped the team see rejection as iteration, not failure.
One major rejection over lack of behavioral health support pushed us to expand. Three months later, we won a deal because of that exact addition. That’s when I realized: resilience in this space isn’t about having thick skin—it’s about learning fast and adapting faster.
Riken Shah, Founder & CEO, OSP Labs
Reframe Setbacks as Progress Indicators
Building resilience in business, especially in the fast-moving and often volatile Web3 space, requires both mental discipline and a deep connection to your purpose. In my experience, repeated rejections and setbacks aren’t just possible; they’re inevitable. From token launch delays to investor rejections and regulatory obstacles, challenges often pile up faster than successes.
One pivotal mental shift that helped me persevere was moving from a “success vs. failure” mindset to a “progress vs. stagnation” mindset. Instead of seeing a failed partnership, a paused roadmap, or a rejected pitch as evidence of personal or professional inadequacy, I began to view each as a step forward in refining strategy, messaging, or execution.
This shift reframed failure as data: every “no” became a valuable signal that sharpened our value proposition or revealed a misalignment that would have surfaced later. I also leaned into structured reflection—after each major setback, I would document what happened, what was within my control, and what I would do differently next time. This not only helped improve outcomes but created a sense of momentum and agency, even in tough periods.
Equally important was surrounding myself with people who believed in the mission. Building a resilient team culture, where we normalized friction and iteration, made setbacks feel like part of the process rather than existential threats. Celebrating small wins, even when the big goals felt distant, also kept morale and motivation high.
Ultimately, resilience came from accepting that the entrepreneurial path is nonlinear, and progress doesn’t always look like forward motion. It looks like learning, adjusting, and showing up again—smarter and more focused than the day before.
Alessandro Malzanini, CEO, Cathedral
Transform Rejections into Market Research
Early in my entrepreneurial journey, I faced constant rejection while cold pitching my SEO services. Out of every 10 prospects I approached, only 2 would respond, and maybe 1 would convert. It was soul-crushing at first.
The mental shift that transformed everything was reframing rejection as data points rather than personal failures. Each “no” became valuable market research that helped me refine my approach.
For example, when multiple prospects said my initial pricing was too high for small businesses, I created tiered packages. When others mentioned they couldn’t understand the ROI, I developed a clear calculation method showing potential returns. These adjustments eventually raised my success rate to 80%.
I also started keeping a “wins journal” where I documented every small victory, from positive client feedback to successful campaign metrics. On tough days, reviewing these concrete achievements helped maintain perspective and momentum.
The biggest lesson was that resilience isn’t about ignoring failure—it’s about using it as a tool for improvement. When a prospect said my outreach emails were too generic, I began personalizing each pitch with specific insights about their business. This led to significantly higher response rates.
One particularly memorable rejection came from a major tech company that said my agency was too small for their needs. Instead of getting discouraged, I used their feedback to build a more robust team and processes. Two years later, they became one of our biggest clients.
My practical advice: Create a system to track both rejections and successes. Document the specific reason for each “no” and identify patterns. Use this data to make incremental improvements to your offering or approach.
I’m happy to provide more specific examples of how I turned rejections into opportunities or share the exact tracking system I used to transform feedback into actionable improvements.
Maurizio Petrone, Founder & CEO, PressHERO
Focus on Customer Value Creation
Building resilience in business is crucial, and for me, one key mental shift has been to, “Control what you can control.” There will always be factors outside of your influence, like funding challenges or market shifts. Early on, we definitely faced skepticism from investors who didn’t fully grasp the scale and complexity of the commercial contracting market. Instead of dwelling on that, we focused relentlessly on our customers and on building a product that truly solved their problems. The belief that, “If you build something people genuinely can’t live without, you won’t need millions to succeed,” became a guiding principle. This focus on creating indispensable value, rather than getting caught up in what we couldn’t control, helped us persevere through setbacks and ultimately build a strong, mission-driven company now worth over a billion dollars.
Alok Chanani, Co-Founder & CEO, BuildOps
Embrace Failures as Learning Opportunities
Building resilience in the face of setbacks has definitely been a huge part of my journey. In business, rejections and failures are inevitable, but they don’t define you unless you let them. One key mental shift that helped me persevere is seeing failures as feedback, not as personal defeats.
I remember early on, I’d get frustrated when campaigns didn’t hit their targets or clients didn’t respond the way I expected. But over time, I started to see each setback as a learning opportunity rather than a roadblock. Instead of dwelling on the “why it failed,” I’d ask myself, “What can I change next time?” That shift from disappointment to curiosity made all the difference.
In our agency, I instilled this mindset across the team too. When a project didn’t go as planned, we’d gather and analyze what went wrong, without blame, and focus on actionable insights. This not only helped us improve but also reinforced that mistakes are part of the process.
The real key to resilience is accepting that setbacks are just part of the journey—not a sign to quit, but an invitation to get better. Once I embraced that, I found it easier to push forward, even when things weren’t going according to plan. Resilience isn’t about never failing; it’s about learning to bounce back each time you do.
Georgi Petrov, CMO, Entrepreneur, and Content Creator, AIG MARKETER
Measure Success Through Daily Momentum
One mental shift that helped me build resilience through repeated setbacks was learning to focus on small, consistent steps rather than big wins. In the early days, I put a lot of pressure on myself to land major clients or hit ambitious goals quickly. When those things didn’t happen, or when they fell through at the last minute, it felt like starting over. That kind of thinking was exhausting. What helped me shift was reminding myself that progress is rarely about leaps. It’s about little steps for little feet, taken every single day.
Instead of measuring success by outcomes, I started measuring it by momentum. Did I send the email? Did I make the call? Did I ship something, even if it was small? These became my daily checkpoints. They weren’t glamorous, and they didn’t always produce instant results, but they built a habit of moving forward no matter what. I began to trust that if I kept showing up, things would eventually break in the right direction. That mindset gave me something to hold onto when things felt uncertain.
Rejection still stung, but it no longer felt like failure. It felt like part of the process. I realized I didn’t need to conquer everything at once; I just needed to keep taking the next right step. That perspective not only kept me going, it actually made the journey more enjoyable. It gave space for learning, reflection, and patience. Over time, those small, steady efforts compounded into something meaningful.
Joe Benson, Cofounder, Eversite
Craft Compelling Stories, Not Just Pitches
When we initially pitched our AI model to VC firms, I faced consecutive rejections. Most said the same thing: “Roofing isn’t sexy.” It would have been easy to quit, but I made one change in my mindset—I stopped defending the model and started defending the story. Instead of explaining the technology, I began talking about the 92-year-old in Fort Worth who got her roof replaced 48 hours after hail damage because of our drone scan. That shifted things. People fund stories, not software.
We eventually raised $7.5 million. Interestingly, one of the early firms that passed ended up asking to join the round later. But the bigger win was learning that resilience is not about having thick skin. It is about precision. I stopped treating rejections as failures and started dissecting them like data sets. If ten people say no to the same pitch, something’s off. If two say maybe and ask the same question, that’s the new pitch. You either evolve or you echo. I chose to evolve.
Nathan Mathews, CEO and Founder, Roofer.com
Document Daily Wins for Perspective
In building my company through numerous setbacks, the mental shift that transformed my resilience came from adopting what I call “success bookends.”
After a particularly difficult period when we lost several key clients during an economic downturn, I found myself spiraling into doubt about our agency’s future. What changed my perspective was implementing a daily practice of documenting one small win at the beginning and end of each day, regardless of what happened in between.
These weren’t major achievements, but meaningful moments easily overlooked during challenging times: a positive client comment, a team member solving a difficult problem, or even just completing a tough conversation I’d been avoiding. By deliberately noting these small victories, I created evidence that progress was happening even amid setbacks.
This practice gradually rewired my perception of our business journey. When we later faced a significant proposal rejection that would have previously devastated me, I was able to place it within a broader context of ongoing progress rather than seeing it as a catastrophic failure.
The mental transformation wasn’t about positive thinking or ignoring problems. Instead, it was about developing a more accurate view of our business trajectory that included both challenges and forward movement. This balanced perspective made perseverance feel more sustainable because I wasn’t constantly fighting a narrative of failure.
What also helped was creating a dedicated “lessons learned” document after each setback, ensuring that rejections always produced something valuable for our business. This tangible outcome from disappointments helped maintain momentum even when immediate results weren’t visible.
Matt Bowman, Founder, Thrive Local
Separate Rejection from Personal Identity
What doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger—but only if you take the time to reflect. I started writing down every major hurdle I faced, and more importantly, every time I overcame one. Seeing it in black and white helped me recognize a pattern: what felt overwhelming in the moment always turned out to be solvable. That gave me confidence that I could weather the next challenge, too.
One mental shift that helped was learning to separate rejection from identity. Just because someone says no to your idea doesn’t mean they’re saying no to you as a person. Every rejection was a data point, not a death sentence. Over time, I got better at using setbacks as fuel—to rethink, reframe, and come back stronger. Resilience isn’t about avoiding failure; it’s about trusting your ability to adapt and keep going.
Vivian Chen, Founder & CEO, Rise Jobs
Cultivate Awareness of Emotional Reactions
I teach yoga philosophy and advise leaders on how to manage emotions under pressure—especially in high-stakes decision-making and relationship-building. I believe yoga philosophy offers unique insights about resilience. My response follows:
Resilience is a result of becoming aware of what feelings we’re trying to outrun—and what we’ve convinced ourselves we need in order to outrun them once and for all.
Our failures often surface what we were relying on our success to protect us from. We don’t just react to failure—we react to what it produces in us—anxiety, shame, inadequacy, helplessness, the feeling of being exposed. We often pursue success—financial freedom, recognition, respect, control—because we believe our success will ensure that we never have to feel these forms of discomfort again.
When we don’t feel compelled to prove that we’re competent, adequate, or fully self-sufficient, we can make decisions that aren’t distorted by the fears of being incompetent, unworthy, or dependent. But once success becomes necessary, our perspective becomes distorted—just as a stronger desire for money, fame, or control makes us more sensitive to lack, invisibility, or uncertainty.
And even when our pursuits succeed—even when the desired success arrives–it often fails to satisfy. Because if our goal was never again to feel incompetent, exposed, small, or anxious, no success will ever be enough.
Resilience, then, is the result of becoming aware of the ways we instinctively and habitually avoid discomfort and crave what we believe will make us invulnerable. It is the result of becoming aware of—before being consumed by—what we are instinctively trying to outrun.
And we don’t cultivate this awareness in order to fix or extinguish our discomfort (which is just more avoidance), or to guarantee success (which is just more craving); we cultivate awareness to see how our reactivity is shaping our thinking, feeling, acting, and perceiving—and to interrupt its momentum so that we have choice, even if we ultimately decide that our instincts were correct.
And this means becoming aware of why we want to be “resilient” in the first place, especially whether or not we think it will make us invincible.
Balraj Persaud, Yoga Philosophy Teacher and Emotional Management Advisor, balraj.yoga
See Challenges as Growth Opportunities
Building resilience requires dedication because it develops through similar training methods to strengthening muscles. In strength training at the gym, the most challenging repetitions create the foundation for building strength.
I experienced several failed ideas and canceled deals that endangered my entire business structure while doubting my worth as a professional. A transformative mental change occurred in my life which made the biggest impact.
To me, rejection stopped showing my worth because it became clear that it pointed me in better directions.
Every “no” taught me something. Each protest against me illuminated specific opportunities to boost my abilities. The way I began approaching my business losses was as learning opportunities and guidance instead of defeats. The positive outlook helped me continue fighting and adapt until I emerged more powerful.
The core value at Fitness Image involves training clients to accept challenging work since growth occurs through dedication. Business is no different. True resilience develops from your ability to keep standing after facing unpleasant and challenging situations.
The wins don’t define you. Your behavior matters more than your performance following the losses. True strength emerges from this specific strategy.
Armstrong Lazenby, Founder, Fitness Image
Pivot Strategies Based on Feedback
I have built up my resilience to repeated rejections through constantly innovating and adapting. After all, the quote “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity” rings very true.
During a period of tough global market conditions, our rejection rates rose. Through analyzing the data, I could see that only 25% of decision makers took our calls, with many having pre-existing close relationships with other suppliers.
I pivoted our strategy from direct selling to a partner-based model. Instead of approaching prospects directly, we collaborated with non-competing suppliers in their supply chains. Launched seven years ago, this strategy grew our turnover from £5m to £20m by leveraging the strong relationships our partners had already built, giving us a level playing field with competitors.
Matt Collingwood, Founder and Managing Director, VIQU IT Recruitment
Understand Rejection is Not Personal
Selling is a very turbulent profession. Although I can’t necessarily take credit for the quote, adopting the mindset from greats like Zig Ziglar or Brian Tracy has helped tremendously. When entering the profession of sales, regardless of industry, you’re forced to evaluate your self-image. With a poor self-image, you’re unable to convey the feelings necessary to close the deal. Even with a healthy self-image, rejection is a tough pill to swallow.
Both Ziglar and Tracy echo the same understanding: they are not rejecting you; they are rejecting your offer. When you face rejection after rejection, you can’t help but feel down. This is where salesmen must reflect on not only their offer but also their prospecting. All good salesmen know the secret to closing a sale is to ensure that you’re selling someone on what they need, not because you need the sale. The secret of caring more about what the prospect needs as opposed to what you need will help you find more qualified leads and face less rejection.
Jonathan Julian, Founder, AutoOps
Stay Present and Use Available Resources
“What I don’t have, I don’t need. What I don’t need, I don’t have.” – Jimmy Butler.
Rejection, unexpected threats, setbacks of all types—these are commonplace when running your own business. Stay in the moment. There is work to be done to get through this. What you have is what got you here, and what you don’t have didn’t get you here. So to get from here to what’s next in your business, what you don’t have, you don’t need, and what you don’t need, you don’t have.
David Smooke, Founder & CEO, HackerNoon
Seek External Perspectives for Clarity
I decided to write down what was not working and why. This allowed me to pivot how I was doing things in business. I also ran my ideas by another person to see if what I was planning was clear to them. Going outside myself helped me see what another person was thinking regarding my rejections and setbacks. Never be afraid to bounce an idea or thought off another person so you can pivot faster.
Beth Smith, Life Coach and Owner, Thriving With Resilience
Turn Setbacks into Product Innovation
In the early days, we struggled to be chosen by clients as they opted for big-name studios. Our business model was consistently dismissed by investors, and even peers gushed over how our “freelancer rates, but with studio quality” approach was “really nice” but just not that appealing. The breakthrough came in realizing that every single “no” wasn’t a failure, but “data” leading us to better opportunities.
After three commercial clients turned down our pitches in the span of a week, we scrutinized why this was happening and found the same conclusion underlying each of them—they all assumed we couldn’t handle large-scale productions. That detour resulted in the development of our now-signature “Scale Proof” portfolio, which features case studies demonstrating how our lean team outwits big studios on complex shoots. Within months, this became our #1 conversion tool, securing us our first six-figure contract.
That mental flip from “rejection as defeat” to “rejection as market research” changed everything for me. When a streaming platform abruptly canceled a major project we were involved with last year, we pivoted some of those pre-production efforts into creating our now-bestselling “Microbudget Production Toolkit.” That pivot brought in more revenue than the original project would have generated. Resilience isn’t about not getting dropped—it’s about building systems (our “Lesson Log” handover, where the team writes down everything they learn from a rejection at the end of the week) to turn roadblocks into R&D energy. We even track our ‘redirection rate’ in parallel to close rates—because some of our best and most lucrative innovations came straight from what we once considered failures.
Our leadership team, every Friday, shares their “Best Rejection of the Week”—what we learned from the experience and how it’s informing our strategy. To be honest, this ritual has discovered 3 of our 5 top profitable service lines.
Andrew Cussens, Digital Marketing Specialist| Founder & CEO, FilmFolk
Analyze Failures for Future Success
Setbacks now seem to me as teaching moments rather than personal failings. I fight the urge to be overly critical when a new product introduction fails or a marketing effort underperforms. Instead, I step back and consider how I might have handled the matter differently for improved outcomes the next time. This reflective approach helps me to draw insightful analysis from past events and apply it toward future achievements.
For instance, I may examine what went wrong if a newly launched jewelry line I presented sold less than projected. Did I misread consumer tastes? Was the pricing off? Objectively analyzing the specifics helps me to identify areas needing improvement instead of just criticizing myself. Rather than being frustrated, this method helps me to adapt and try again.
Brian Akdemir, Director of Ecommerce, Bahdos
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