REJECTION PROOF . by Jia Jiang . ( Random House , £13.99 ) Who likes rejection ? Whether you are being rejected by a lover , an employer or a barman who serves a newly arrived regular customer before you , it ’ s galling . And in every case there ’ s nothing we can do about it . Nothing that doesn ’ t carry a long prison sentence , anyway . It would take someone exceptionally optimistic and uncynical to propose an alternative thesis , and Jia Jiang is both of those . Born into a family of teachers , Jia Jiang was so determined to become an entrepreneur that , as a child in China , he dug a hole in the garden , intending to reach America by the shortest route . He eventually made the journey by conventional means , and found a good life there . Wife , children , several degrees , job in middle management . But he wasn ’ t happy . He wanted to take risks , start his own company . It does n't matter where it comes from - no one likes being rejected and in each and every case there ’ s nothing we can do about it ( picture posed by model ) The problem was he inevitably encountered rejection , mainly from potential backers for his project ( another iPhone app no one could possibly need or want ) . And each time , rejection felt like the end of the world . A successful entrepreneur needed to be more robust than this . So , having possibly read one self-help book too many , Jia Jiang decided to embark on his own rejection-proofing quest . Instead of avoiding rejection , he would spend 100 days deliberately seeking out situations in which he was likely to be rejected , film them and put them up on his blog . All of which seemed to me , at first glance , rather artificial . There have been any number of ‘ quest ’ books , in which humorous writers have gone round Ireland with a fridge , for example , less for the sake of doing it than to write a book about it . But Jia Jiang isn ’ t a humorous writer . He may adopt a light-hearted tone , but his quest was deadly serious . On day one , he went up to a security guard and asked if he could borrow $ 100 . The security guard said no , and Jia almost broke into a run to get away . Watching the video later , he said he looked like the man in Munch ’ s The Scream . On day two , he went into a burger joint and , noticing a sign on the soft drinks machine saying ‘ Free refill ’ , asked the cashier for a burger refill . The cashier said no . But as he continued his quest , Jia realised there were ways and ways of asking . Show confidence , inject a little bit of humour , be willing to negotiate and you might not get exactly what you want , but you might get something . So he walked into Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and asked for a set of five iced doughnuts , interlocking in the manner of the Olympic symbol . The woman behind the counter looked thoughtful . ‘ When are you looking for these ? ’ she asked . ‘ In the next . . . 15 minutes ? ’ ‘ Let me see what I can do , ’ she said . And did it . You can see what happened next on YouTube . And so develops a surprisingly entertaining study of rejection in all its many manifestations . People confuse it with failure , but rejection is personal , and we take it personally . The crucial point is that rejection is unavoidable and it ’ s how we respond to it that matters . Jia Jiang ’ s extreme positivity can grate at times but his message is sound : rejection is only someone else ’ s opinion , and it may not be the right one .
It does n't matter where it comes from - no one likes being rejected . And in each and every case there ’ s nothing we can do about it . ho Jiang , with his exceptional optimism , offers an alternative thesis . He has written an entertaining critique of racism in all its many forms .