Fanatical Military Recruiting

20Rejection Proof

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

—Eleanor Roosevelt

Imagine that you’re sitting at home when suddenly the doorbell rings. You weren’t expecting a visitor.

You begin running through a series of images in your mind of who might be at your door—salesperson, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Girl Scouts, neighbor, UPS, FedEx? You may fear the worst and imagine that it’s a criminal who wants to rob you.

With a measure of curiosity and trepidation, you open the door. But it’s not any of the things you imagined. There, standing before you, is a well-groomed young Chinese man wearing soccer cleats.

With suspicion in your voice you ask, “May I help you?”

Sporting a big grin, he responds, “Yes, I came by to ask if you would take a video of me playing soccer in your backyard.”

Pause for a moment and consider how you might react to such a strange and unexpected request. Then step into the other person’s shoes and imagine what it would be like to be the requester. Both parties, in this weird moment, would be swept up by a sea of disruptive emotions.

This, by the way, is a true story. It’s how Jia Jiang became rejection proof.¹ We’ll come back to Jia Jiang later in the chapter. First let’s consider some basic facts:

• When you became a military recruiter, you are signed up to seek out rejection.
• Seeking out rejection is not natural for humans.
• To build an effective recruiting funnel, you must interrupt strangers.
• To get what you want, you must ask for what you ...