100 Days Rejection Therapy Q&A
Hello fans of my blog. I have received hundreds of heart-warming messages from you through my blog, and thousands through Youtube. I am inspired and overwhelmed by your encouragement. I tried to reply to each message, then I started to feel I might need eye surgery or hand transplant. I will continue trying to respond to you, but I’m writing this Q&A to answer some of the most commonly asked questions. Q. Who am I?
A. My name is Jia Jiang (@jiajiang). I’m a proud husband and father in Austin, TX. I also own a technology startup called Hooplus. We are building a commitment management tool to help consumers and business to keep their promises, increase productivity and collaboration.
Q. Why am I doing this? A. In 11/2012, I was turned down by a prominent investor. I wanted the investment so bad that I had dreamt about it on five different occasions. The final rejection hurt as if Santa Claus showed up in person and told me he’s not real, and then ran away with my gifts.
I then turned inward, and wanted to focus on building myself with the necessary entrepreneurial skillsets. My experience revealed that my fear of rejection was real, so I wanted to tackle it first. I searched, and found Jason Comely’s Rejection Therapy concept through FounderDating Forum. I liked it so much and decided to do it right away, and vlog it to keep myself accountable to going through the whole 100 days.
Q. Is it working? A. Like magic blended with kungfu. If you see my first video, I was timid, apologetic and wanted to get out of there ASAP. Now, I can negotiate and even joke with each person.
Q. Should you try Rejection Therapy yourself? A. Absolutely! Many of you expressed that the more videos you watch, the less cringe-worthy they become. That suggests even watching the videos might have some therapeutic effect. However, I encourage all of you to try it on some level personally, because it really works. Maybe you will run into another Jackie in the meantime.
Q. How should you do it? A. You should develop your own rules. Here are the criteria I use: 1. They are fun/crazy. This is fun only if you have the mindset of having fun. 2. They are challenging but not totally unrealistic. In another word, what's stopping the other party from doing it is the craziness, not physics. 3. They are something you want to do. When you get a 'yes' if it ever happens, you should follow through. Therefore, pick something you would enjoy doing/receiving.
Q. What’s next? A. The journey just got started and I have 90 more days to go. Just because the honeymoon was like a dream, it doesn’t mean the rest of marriage doesn’t need to be experienced. We are going to experience this together, good and bad. Hopefully there will be more Jackies, Scotts and Roberts. But either way, there is no loss. That’s the beauty of Rejection Therapy.
Q. What about your suggestions? A. Your suggestions for crazy requests are amazing. I wish you could see them all. When they first start to come in, I kept a list. But now, we are looking at three years if I do them all. I want to overcome rejection, not marry it. However, I will try to blend in your suggestions as I go on, because your ideas are truly ingenious. Keep them coming!
Q. So will you do any crazy requests involve romance? A. No. I am blissfully married with a chubby 4 months old. No blog material, no matter how interesting, can undermine that.