What's Going On: Why failing to fail can be the greatest success

Jia Jiang is an Austin, Texas, entrepreneur who had tasted failure one too many times.

He finally snapped after losing a major investment deal in early November. In order to help overcome his growing fear of rejection, Jiang embarked on an odd do-it-yourself-psychotherapy treatment: for 100 consecutive days, he would make an outrageous request of someone with the hopes of being rejected.

The “Rejection Therapy” approach wasn’t Jiang’s brainchild. It was first implemented by a Canadian web developer a couple years ago. But Jiang quickly became its most well known advocate.

The experiment/therapy started typically. He asked a stranger if he could borrow $100. The simple, outlandish request received the expected response: um, no.

Day two Jiang went to Five Guys, a fast food restaurant and asked for a burger refill. When the bewildered employee clarified Jiang actually wanted a burger refill, similar to a soda refill, he responded typically: um, no.

Then came day three. Jiang, who was trying to desensitize himself to rejection and accept failure by making outrageous requests, failed, but in an entirely unintended manner.

Jiang walked into a Krispy Kreme donut store and asked the employee for a five-donut creation resembling the Olympic rings. He not only wanted them connected in a similar fashion, but he also wanted the same colors represented on the donuts.

Enter Jackie.

When he asked Jackie if she could accommodate his request, she didn’t look at him like he had three heads. Instead, she simply said when do you need it.

Seemingly sealing the impossibility of the request, Jiang, who was probably a little surprised at her response, said 15 minutes.

No way. Impossible. He was ready to turn around a success and walk out a reject once more.

Except Jackie wasn’t ready to give up so easily. She scribbled a design on a receipt before doing some time calculations that involved colors and donut manufacturing equipment.

She explained the donuts may not be perfectly linked and tried to determine the color scheme, of which Jiang wasn’t even certain as he fully expected a no instantly.

Then she told him she would give it a shot.

Remarkably, she produced the color-coded donuts in the 15-minute time frame.

Simply overwhelmed by her willingness to try and accommodate his request, Jiang clumsily expressed his gratitude and asked where he needed to pay.

That’s when Jackie went into Act 2 of her amazing performance.

She refused to accept his money, stating it didn’t look perfect. He argued, but she was adamant. This one was “on her” as she thanked him for the opportunity to serve him.

Jiang later remarked “at this very moment, I knew why Gandhi ever lived, because with people like Jackie, mankind is worth saving after all.”

The video of the event has become a Youtube sensation, with more than 2 million posts. A second blog has been started urging Krispy Kreme to give Jackie, a five-year employee, a pay raise, or at least a promotion to CEO.

Jiang meanwhile, despite his failure, has continued his quest. He’s asked a stranger to play soccer in his backyard. He tried convincing a Costco manager to let him talk over the store’s intercom. He tried to send Santa a package through Fed Ex.

So far, he’s been lucky enough to fail, fail and fail even more.

And more than likely, as he has received literally thousands of suggestions, he will probably be able to enjoy rejection to its fullest during the rest of his experiment/treatment.

But based on his blog (http://www.entresting.com/blog/) Jiang’s efforts to make sure he failed at failing will be the success that not only has the biggest impact on his life, but many others.

Gregory Orear is the General Manager/Editor of the Red Oak Express and Glenwood Opinion-Tribune. He can be contacted at publisher@redoakexpress.com.