I've done a lot of things that people relentlessly told me I had no chance of accomplishing.
1. Extraordinary, and able to achieve what others cannot. 2. Lucky, and by chance successful in an area where success is hard to find. 3. Being told that you have no chance of accomplishing things that are actually not very hard. 4. A living example of how anybody can do that which they set their mind to.
If you're 1, then other people can't use your experience as a guideline. If you're 2, then people can't use your experience as a guideline. If you're 3, then people can't use your experience as a guideline.
If you think you're 4, then you're either 1, 2, or 3, and just don't realize it yet.
Same here. I just use the commentary from the naysayers as "fuel for the fire", if you will.
On that note... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-qhWahjOgY
Trying is never zero-risk but not trying is always 100% risk of failure.
The bigger the risk the bigger the reward usually, that's how capitalism works.
Work a 9-to-5 at a safe company, make a nice salary, have little risk
Work a 9-to-7 at a startup, make less money but have equity, have more risk of the company going under but have a bigger shot at reward
Start your own company, have no salary but 100% equity, risk being homeless, reward being a billionaire
Every choice you make is a risk-reward calculation and you have to decide what's important to you and whether it's worth risking for a bigger reward.
I've found that since the advent of email (and before that postal mail) it's much easier though. You fire off an email and you forget it. If something happens it happens. So you don't really feel the rejection.
By the way separately some of the best cold calling salesman are people who can't register or feel the annoyance or discomfort of those they are pitching. People who are able to feel this (either visually or by vocal tone) have a much much harder time overcoming the negative feedback. (Source: This is based on anecdote and observation over many years in business.)
I think this is one of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs. Winston Churchill once said "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." A lot of people, however, can only tolerate so much failure. At some point, failure wears them down and they lose the will to keep trying.
So, if you try 10 times, your chance of never succeeding is around 90%. Or, saying it another way, the chance of succeeding, at least once, is 10%