Book review: Rejection proof by Jia Jiang

I wish I had half the courage as this man had, during his project. He started his first project with a small heart, but he started anyway. He did his 100 days of rejection, and was pleasantly surprised.

The book chronicles the journey of Jia to become rejection proof through 100 tasks he sets himself to ask ridiculous things of total strangers.

It started with is first act: trying to borrow 100 dollar from a total stranger. He went into his office building and asked a total stranger, a security guard, if he could borrow the 100 dollar. In his head he was preparing for all kinds of rejections, before he even asked his question. He gets a “No. Why?” and he basically bolts out the door.

He films his rejections which are still watchable on his youtube channel here.

His turning point, as is noticable in the book, is this project here. He sincerely wants them to say No, to his request. He sincerely wants to hear No. But as the video goes on, you really see the server (Jackie) ponder the request and overthink verbally how she would do it. At the end of the video, you see him get the donuts, free of charge, just because he asked something out of the ordinary.

The book is a sort of therapy for rejection grounded in some of the ideas also discussed in my previous book review, antidote.  It’s a therapy that helps against shyness and helps people to get more confidence as well, by giving them a task: lying down in public, for example, as in the comfort zone crusher, originally popularized by Albert Ellis in his Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, based on ancient stoic philosophy.

I like the fact that he took himself as a guinea pig and did this experiment on himself and reported it back to us. As a science report on how to beat rejection.

He writes in a very down to earth way, explaining his experiments day to day with great interest, disecting them, like a scientist and telling you why he does it, and what he felt during the experiment.

It’s a great read for people whom are interested to conquer their fear of rejection, as I initially was, although I never did any of the exercises or did any CBT (although it really sounds interesting). It is interesting to read about a man’s experience in conquering his most potent fear, and break it down, day after day in a 100 day experiment, that clearly changed his whole life.

If you would like to buy the book, please do so through my affiliate link here.

You can watch a ted talk about his experience down below: