Behind the wins: rejections that led to my best speaking gigs

Announced 3 speaking confirmations in the last two weeks. Looks cool, right? 🤩

But something about sharing only that part feels off to me. Because the other side matters just as much: the bad news, the disappointment, the "sorry but's". Those hit hard. On your confidence, your ego, your motivation.

Getting a session proposal rejected from a conference doesn't mean the topic proposed sucks, or that they wouldn't trust you as a speaker. I've learnt from organizers that most conferences receive on average 5 times more proposals than the slots available in the agenda... so do the maths 😉

If I had let the disappointment from not being on the agenda of ScanAgile26, Agile Cambridge or Agile Tour Strasbourg hit my motivation, I would never have gotten the boost and energy from speaking at DataBeers Brussels, Journée agile or Regional Scrum Gathering® Brussels 🔥

Next time you see someone sharing their wins on LinkedIn: keep in mind that there's probably a less shiny version of the story they're not posting about. 👌

So how badly did the "sorry but's" impact your motivation to go further lately? 👇