I don’t know any Inventor that has submitted an idea for review by a company that has not gotten a rejection. The question is how do you react to that rejection? Below are things that Inventors have done when they received the dreaded rejection. Do you see yourself or any of your fellow Inventors falling into these traps?
Rejection is part of the business. No matter how good your ideas are you WILL see rejection. Learn from it and make informed decisions. Don’t let anger ruin what could be turned into success with more research or going in a different direction.
Are these things you might do?
Do you rant and rave to yourself at home or to anyone that will listen about how stupid the company is for turning you down?
Do you send a nasty email to the company telling them they will be sorry for turning down your million-dollar idea? Because you will now sell it to their competitor and destroy their company.
Do you teach the company a good lesson for turning you down by not submitting anything else to those stupid people?
Do you toss your idea in the trash and just forget about it ever again?
Do you wish the company was closer so you could go there and give them a piece of your mind?
Do you call and email the company daily telling them they need to reconsider your idea because they are passing up the opportunity of a lifetime?
Do you send them even more information on the rejected idea to try and change their mind?
Do you look for someone else to blame for them not “Getting” your idea?
Do you tell the company you are going to tell all your friends not to buy any of their products since they were stupid enough to pass on your idea?
Do you now hate anyone that has succeeded in getting their product to market and you have not?
Do you get friends to write the company and tell them they would buy your product if the company made it?
Do you toss away all your other ideas because no company is going to be smart enough to see your genius?
Do you decide you will show them and pay a company to make your product for you when you have no idea where to go next?
Now, these next two have to be the top winners for what not to do when you get rejected by a company. I was speaking to a couple of Inventors this weekend and was surprised when one of the Inventors told me her plan to get back at a company that rejected her idea. She said she had sent her product to a company that was a perfect fit since they do most of their products in plastic and hers was a plastic product. She was devastated when they said it was a decent idea but just wasn’t what they were looking for and with a limited R&D budget to work with they were going to pass.
Her reaction was that the company was worth millions, had enough of a budget to cover her product, they said it was a decent idea and was just turning her down because she is female. She wants to file a discrimination lawsuit against them. I tried explaining that a company no matter what they are worth generally has a budget they work within for R&D and the people running that budget are looking for the most bang for their buck. If they thought her idea was decent but not great and saw it as high risk on getting a return on investment I understand and agree they should not go forward with it. It has nothing to do with gender, it is a financial decision. She said I sounded just like the lawyer she talked to and stormed off. Glad I am not working with her. LOL
This is another example of why many companies are reluctant to work with outside Inventors.
Here is the second winner. Talked with an Inventor last week that wanted to take out an ad in their local paper blasting the company that rejected their idea. When I asked if they thought that would help or change the company’s mind about their idea she said “No, but I am so frustrated I don’t know what else to do.” After talking for a few minutes, she decided that was probably not in her best interest.
Are any of the above items options you think would help you or build a better relationship between you and the company that rejected your idea? I have gotten rejected by plenty of companies and I don’t like it any better than the next person but I have also licensed products to those very same companies that rejected my other ideas. You must be willing to take criticism, rejection, learn from it and improve your ideas if you plan to succeed.