News Break Just Rejected Me

There is no point in crying over spilt milk worth $3000

News Break Creator Program is the talk of the down these days in the writer fraternity. Any why not, it’s not always that you get such a lucrative offer served on a platter. With $3000 for 36 articles up for grabs and a referral bonus of $250, the proposal looked too good to be true.

The program allows reposting your previous blog or Medium content, making the entire offer feel like a cakewalk. Especially for the established writers with thousands of articles and millions of followers, this was the icing on the cake.

I initially got introduced to the News Break Creator Program through a Quora question. To check out more details, I tried to google it, but nothing much productive was available. The only information accessible was the $3000 price tag for 36 articles over three months timeline.

I decided to give it a skip, as the saying goes — If something seems too good to be true, it probably is not true.

Over the next few days, Philip Hofmacher and Sinem Günel brought up the topic for discussion in their Facebook group “Medium Writing Academy Mastermind”, of which I was a part.

The topic caught steam, and considering Top Writers were getting enrolled in the program, it gave me confidence, and I decided to follow their trail.

I finally applied for the program on 24th November using Sinem’s referral link. I received a mail confirmation from News Break with a 5–7 days timeline for getting a final response to the application. I was confident of getting the contract as most of the group discussions mentioned that they had not seen any rejections from the company.

Now started the nervous wait. Even though we are used to most of the major publications’ two-week timeline, this wait seemed longer. Most of the newbies like me had never imagined writing for such a price tag. I started thinking of topics for those 36 all important stories that would get me my highest income as a writer to date.

Over the week, News Break was the most discussed topic on the Facebook group. The ones who got in were querying on the functionality and comparing the terms of the contract. The others sitting out like me were keenly watching the discussion to keep ourselves updated and ready for the game.

The feeling was like a runner crouched on a starting block, waiting for the gun, to start a sprint.

There was so much buzz about the program that Phillip decided to open a new group called News Break Creator Program Mastermind to segregate the discussion from the Medium group. I would have been among the first few to get into the group to avoid losing out on any action.

Five days had passed, but there was no response. The only comforting thing was that most of the group members had not received any reply. The group’s consensus was that it would result from staff absenteeism due to the holiday season. All this while, I kept monitoring my mailbox every few hours to ensure that I don’t miss the contract due to the mail dropping in the spam, as Phillip suggested.

On the sixth day, i.e., 30th November, my anxiety took the better of me, and I wrote back to News Break to inquire about my application’s status. But I didn’t hear anything from them.

The wait is finally over

Fast forward to 3rd December; I saw a News Break email in my inbox. My happiness had no bounds. I opened the email with great expectation, only to read a two-liner rejection message. I felt the $ 3000 disappearing in thin air in front of my eyes.

Within seconds, my happy soul dived right from Mt. Everest’s peak to the depth of the Mariana Trench. All hope seemed to have lost. News Break had rejected, and my mind was dejected. The news had struck me in the middle of my writing session, and my brain just went blank. I needed a break.

I just got up from my desk, dressed up my kid, and took him to the garden for a walk. I wanted to be alone and spend time with my biggest stress buster.

In the garden, I saw him trying to climb up a block. It was difficult for him due to his short height. He lost balance and fell quite a few times but got up and tried again. After five minutes of effort, I could see the frustration in his eyes. He was crying, shouting and falling again. Trying to help, I wanted to pick him up, but the little champ just pushed my hand aside and went on with his attempts.

Finally, he made it by trying to fix his toe in a small slot in the block, which he discovered and used as a ladder to gain the required height. The joy on his face was that of an angle. He proudly looked at me and symbolled me to clap. Well done, my sweetheart, I said in a slow voice.

As I clapped for my little wonder, I realized that I was in the same shoes as him; the only difference was how we reacted to the situation. Unfortunately, his reaction was more matured than mine. He had unknowingly taught me something valuable at the right time.

Coming back home, I had realized that failure was a part of life. My reaction was natural, but I had to get over it soon. I decided to introspect to avoid a repeat.

My learning from self-evaluation

1) Opportunities will strike but are you ready for it. Money always creates an illusion that blinds you. In my case, even if News Break selected me, I was never really ready to make the cut and grab the bonus. With a run rate of 2–3 stories a month and some 15 odd in the draft, I would have had a herculean task to churn out 12 stories a month or three a week. Its better they rejected me; else, it would have been a bigger disappointment of not achieving the goal with an opportunity on your plate.

Takeaway Opportunities will keep coming in life. It not always that the first opportunity is the last one. It would be best if you kept a focus on your primary goal, i.e., writing in this case, learn from your mistakes, and sharpen your knife to make the cut next time it strikes. We fail because we lose focus quickly and deviate from our goals.

2) Accept rejection with a pinch of salt Rejections or failures are sometimes very painful. They can quickly put you on a negative path. Getting depressed or sad due to an unfavorable outcome is natural to anyone — a lot of effort and resources are wasted. But harping over the same topic is not going to be productive. Instead, it would lead to you more failures in life.

Takeaway Rejections are not bad. In fact, they help us realize mistakes and make us future-ready. As the CEO of Google says :

“Wear your failure as a badge of honor!” ― Sundar Pichai

Rejections and failures allow you to introspect and understand what works and what doesn’t. They help you to improve and Fastrack you on the growth path. We need to train our brains to accept failures positively.

3) Dream big but take action to make it a reality. We always crave something which we don’t possess — money, sex, fame, property — keeping ourselves starving and unhappy. We keep thinking big but never take action. A dream will not turn into reality if you don’t come out of your hibernation.

Takeaway Always appreciate what you have and work toward improving it. Look at the brighter side of things. Don’t be desperate and get caught in the shiny object syndrome. Keep the focus on your goal. There is no easy success, and it is easy, then success is not sweet. Its good to dream of better things in life, but it is equally important to get out of the dream, take action, and make the dream a reality.

4) Don’t blame others for your failure. Introspect.

It’s easy to put your failure on others. By disowning the responsibility, you won’t achieve anything. More importantly, since you consider it to be someone else’s issue, you will never be able to work towards improvement.

Takeaway

One needs to own up for his mistakes. The buck starts and stops at you. If you consider it as your fault, it would be easier to work towards rectifying it. You will be able to dedicate more time and effort to conclusive find answers to your problem. It’s simple — “I own, I succeed.”

My Moment of Truth

I am happy that I learnt the biggest lesson of my life, the hard way. It has helped me to be more dedicated and focused on my goal to succeed as a writer. I have drafted three stories within two days, more than I used to write in a month. I have challenged myself to write 50 stories in the next three months, along with my hectic work schedule. Not sure if it will burn me out, but that’s now secondary. I am determined to work out of my comfort zone and explore new territories.

It’s my path to self realize my abilities and not to prove anyone wrong.