Entrepreneur Jia Jiang Tries 100 Days Of Rejection Therapy

CAN Many tortured souls with crippling insecurities seek out therapists and life coaches, recite affirmations, and try to convince themselves that they're deserving of professional and personal success. Jia Jiang, on the other hand, tries to get painfully, awkwardly and cruelly rejected over and over again.

Jiang, a former Dell employee, started his "100 Days of Rejection Therapy" in order to thicken his skin. As the founder of a new web start-up, he needs to hustle for cash. But Jiang's ego was too fragile for the job. So since mid November, Jiang has been making one ridiculous request a day, on-camera, in the hope of immunizing himself to the sting of rebuff.

As he writes on his blog entresting.com, Jiang dreams of drinking "the smoothie blended with Steve Job's charisma, Chris Gardner's tenacity, Paul Graham's judgment, Bill Gate's ruthlessness, Warren Buffett's longevity, and Marc Zuckerberg's vision (or luck)."

"However," he adds, "since I'm not born with most of these traits, I need to acquire them through exercise, one-by-one."

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So far, he's asked to borrow $100 from a stranger, to get a "burger refill" at Five Guys, to deliver Domino's next pizza, to speak over Costco's intercom, to ride down a firepole at a fire station, to get a mall Santa to sit on his lap, to be a live mannequin at Abercrombie, to do a live weather broadcast, to get a PetSmart employee to trim his hair, and to name somebody's baby. Jiang still has 57 rejections to go.

Turns out, the world is a more interesting place when every rejection is a success. Jiang has picked up some great wisdom from the experience, like the importance of confidence; the value of asking "why" after a "no" and proposing an alternative; the strategic power of asking someone one-and-one, and getting them laughing; the multitude of joyous experiences you can have, if you just look out for them; and the number of incredible people walking this earth, who will do their best to oblige your completely bizarre requests.

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Jiang has found some surprising successes, like when he got Krispie Kreme to make him a special multi-donut dessert in the shape of the Olympic sign, or the Cheasecake Factory waitstaff to sing him 'Happy Birthday" when he wasn't eating in the restaurant, and it wasn't his birthday.

When Jiang quit his job at Dell in July, four days before the birth of his first child, his wife agreed to support the family for six months while Jiang tried to get his start-up off the ground, reports Bloomberg Businessweek. Now she's given him some bonus time, with the hope that his blog will drum up some good publicity.

Jiang's hopeful. Not only has the project pounded the fear out of him, when it comes to selling himself to investors, it's also proven his talent for coming up with creative ideas, if he should need a plan B.

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