{"id":197,"date":"2007-09-07T19:27:17","date_gmt":"2007-09-07T23:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bluefootedmusings.com\/?p=197"},"modified":"2007-12-09T22:25:36","modified_gmt":"2007-12-10T02:25:36","slug":"on-rejection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bluefootedmusings.com\/?p=197","title":{"rendered":"On Rejection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Giuseppe Verdi wrote amazing music. Even if you don&#8217;t like opera, <em>Aida<\/em> will knock your socks off. Something interesting about Verdi: he was turned down by the Conservatory in Milan. They said that he was <em>privo di talento musicale<\/em> (lacking in musical talent). Verdi was not a quitter. He found someone to teach him privately and though I don&#8217;t know his story beyond that point, he clearly succeeded in becoming a great composer. We can only hope that those idiots in Milan had to eat their words.<\/p>\n<p>According to popular anecdote, something similar happened to Fred Astaire. He had a screen test at a studio and this is how they summed him up: &#8220;Can&#8217;t sing, can&#8217;t act, slightly balding, can dance a little.&#8221; This tale is part of Hollywood legend, so it may or may not be factual, but it has the ring of truth, doesn&#8217;t it? Astaire was a funny-looking guy, nearly awkward. At first glance, he wouldn&#8217;t have seemed like star material. In any event, he didn&#8217;t let that or anything else get in his way. He succeeded magnificently as a singer, an actor, and a dancer. He never became a hair model, but had that been his goal, who knows what might have happened? \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<p>And here&#8217;s an example fitting for today. Madeleine L&#8217;Engle&#8217;s most famous book, <em>A Wrinkle in Time<\/em>, was rejected by 26 publishers before she was finally able to sell it. L&#8217;Engle died today. The only reason that I know and care is because she didn&#8217;t give up on that book.<\/p>\n<p>If you give up too easily, you rob not only yourself but also every person who might appreciate your special talents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Giuseppe Verdi wrote amazing music. Even if you don&#8217;t like opera, Aida will knock your socks off. Something interesting about Verdi: he was turned down by the Conservatory in Milan. They said that he was privo di talento musicale (lacking &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/bluefootedmusings.com\/?p=197\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[517],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bluefootedmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bluefootedmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bluefootedmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bluefootedmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bluefootedmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bluefootedmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bluefootedmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bluefootedmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bluefootedmusings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}