Friday, February 04, 2005

The Simon Cowell short course on Professional Rejection

Simon Cowell (pictured) is the "bad cop" among the triad of judges on American Idol, and there's really no need to go into his background, which speaks for itself, or what people think of him, since they speak for themselves. :-)

But I have noticed an eerie similarity -- between the reactions of really bad Idol contestants to Simon's rejection of the notion that they have talent, and the reactions we have when we are rejected in a professional context (e.g. fired, laid off, not hired, denied grants, promotion, tenure, etc. etc. etc.). If you can avoid reacting the same way as the strange people who turn up on Idol, then I hereby decree that you have the attitude of a professional. You avoid the following:
  • "Are you serious?"
  • "I mean, I know I'm not the best singer ever, but I think I'm pretty good..."
  • "My friends all think I'm great!"
  • "Maybe if I could sing something different... Could I sing something different?"
  • "What have YOU ever done, anyway?" [to Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Paula Abdul]
  • "My face will be on the cover of every magazine in the world, including People's Sexiest People Alive!"
  • "I'll be making platinum albums when you and your children are lost to the dust of history!"
So you see the spectrum of reactions moves from shock to disappointment to disbelief to pettiness to downright megalomania...

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posted by Ron @ 8:22 AM

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