Jia Jiang was an Asian American person, who like many of us, had a huge fear of rejection. We’re often afraid to ask for things – whether it’s a job promotion, a date, or a favour.
Jia felt this was holding him back in his career, so he decided to make an effort and try to get rejected 100 times. By doing this, he would get desensitized to rejection, and rejection wouldn’t seem that big of a deal anymore. Jia made a list of epic things to ask for (and get rejected on)
In the second episode on his video blog, Jia went up to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for the first time. The burger looked amazing, and he tells the audience that he’s going to eat it, and then ask for a second burger for free. He called it a burger refill, you know, kind of like a drink refill, but with burgers.
Jia had a conversation with the cashier, but eventually, the cashier said that didn’t do burger refills.
“Can I have a burger refill?”
“A burger refill… what do you mean?”
“You have no refills for burgers?”
“No free refills for burgers.”
Unlike the first rejection therapy video where Jia asked a stranger for a $100, and then immediately ran away, this time he had a longer conversation. Note, at this point, he has been rejected (“No free refills”), but he’s trying a different strategy to overcome his fear of rejection: he’s trying to stay engaged by asking questions.
“How come you have it for drinks, and not for burgers?”
That’s just the way it is.
I would have used the strategy called run away, but Jia continues with his questions and tries to stay engaged in the face of rejection.
“I’ll like you guys a lot more if you have a burger refill.”
The cashier was pretty non committed, and then Jia left the restauraunt.
Outside of the restauraunt, Jia talks to the camera and explains, “I got a no, so day 2 was a success.” Do you agree with that?
Here’s the video: