In his teens, Stephen King began writing stories and submitting them to magazines for publication.
The first was about a man attempting to counterfeit enough “Happy Stamps” to buy his mother a house. King sent the story to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. The rejection slip arrived 3 weeks later. It wished him good luck and gave him one piece of advice.
Never staple manuscripts. Use paperclips instead.
He put a nail in the eaves above his desk and slipped the rejection slip onto it.
When the next rejection slip arrived, it went on the nail too.
By the time King was 14, the nail no longer supported the weight of the rejection slips, and he replaced it with a spike.
The more King wrote, the more rejection slips he received.
After a few more years, some of the slips returned with words of encouragement. The first read “This is good. Not for us, but good. You have talent. Submit again.”
King needed little encouragement to keep writing, but this was enough.
10 years later, he published his first novel, Carrie. Now, he’s one of the best-known and most successful writers in the world.
What was the secret to King’s success?
Persistence. Each rejection and failure only fueled the next story.
Maybe he had talent, more than most probably, maybe more than all of us. But talent wasn’t enough on its own. He wasn’t afraid of rejection; he wasn’t afraid of failure. If he had given up at the first, or even the 20th rejection slip, you and I wouldn’t know his name.
The greatest enemy of success is the fear of failure.
