THE REJECTION THAT CHANGED MY LIFE

A collection of interviews with distinguished career women about how they managed rejection on the way to success.

In this follow-up to Mistakes I Made at Work (2014), Bacal, director of reflective and integrative practices at Smith College, argues that professional rejection often conceals gender inequities and stereotypes that have long dogged career-minded women. “Rejection,” she writes, “can reinforce a message that many of us are receiving all the time in small ways: You don’t belong.” This book offers stories and tips about rejection from female academics, lawyers, entrepreneurs, journalists, and artists who have succeeded in professions dominated by men. In the first of four sections, Bacal shows how women like psychologist Angela Duckworth and Harvard Business School professor Laura Huang transformed their many rejections into opportunities to transcend disappointment and synthesize what they learned in order to overcome systemic barriers. The second section includes stories about women such as queer writer and performance artist Michelle Tea, who used rejection to find creative ways to bring her work into the public arena. In the third section, comedy writer Emily Winter sagely advises that “being told you need to strive" is far better preparation than being told on a routine basis, as many male professionals are, that "everything you do is great.” The fourth section includes contributions from Los Angeles Times staff reporter Carolina Miranda and chef Unmi Abkin, both of whom show how rejection can actually help someone “pivot” from an ill-suited job to one that is a better fit. Bacal supplements the essays with exercises designed to help readers "generate a new story about yourself.” This affirming book is sure to provide career women with the courage to not only move forward from rejection, but also mount necessary challenges to the masculine bias in the professional world. Other contributors include Roz Chast, Tara Schuster, and Loretta Ross.

Illuminating, encouraging reading for anyone who has felt stymied by rejection.