But it takes a while, as we try to analyze what went wrong, what we could have done better, and what the heck just happened. How do we move on when we don’t even feel like getting out of bed? How do believe that good things in our future are ever possible?
As a writer, I’ve had my fair share of rejections from agents, editors, book publishers and television executives. I have tried not to take them personally. If one magazine editor didn’t want my queries for article ideas, I sent them to another editor, who usually did. I came close once to getting one of my screenplays accepted at “Netflix,” but the producers didn’t like the ending. Never mind that I never got a chance to change it.
Another time, my producer daughter, Lindsay, and I came close to working on one of my screenplays for “Mar Vista,” then the writers strike happened. What did I do? I looked once again at a very special letter that my friend, Erma Bombeck, wrote to me many years ago, when I was a budding teenage poet. She was writing for the “Kettering-Oakwood Times” and I sent her a letter seeking her advice.
I couldn’t believe it when I opened her letter. She had personally written it to me. It read: “You’re on your way at 16. When I was your age, I couldn’t write my name on my gym shorts. Good luck and God bless, Erma Bombeck.”
Her encouraging words meant the world to me, and still do. I read a story once about Erma. Or, maybe I heard about it, but when she was a budding writer, none of the editors at the “Kettering-Oakwood Times,” wanted to publish her essays. They turned her down flat. But Erma was smart and didn’t give in to defeat. She reached out to their wives and the rest is history.
Erma went on to write her essays, got syndicated in 700 or so newspapers and had her own segment on “Good Morning, America.” All because she was defeated but didn’t give up. She will always be my hero. So, if you’re feeling defeated, find a hero to look up to, someone who obviously didn’t give up.
Is it Thomas Edison, who, after 10,000 failures invented electricity? Is it the Wright brothers, who endured hunger, bitter cold and many defeats before they successfully flew their fragile plane? Is it Helen Keller, who rose above her handicaps to be an inspiration for so many?
What is defeat, anyway, when you pick yourself up out of the mud, brush yourself off, find your inspiration again, and step back on that path towards success? Trudge on, dear friends, trudge on.
Anne Mount is an award-winning journalist, author, and screenwriter. She is a native Daytonian.
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