How Do You Respond to Recruiting Rejections and Failures?

by | Mar 25, 2025

If you’re a frequent Insight reader, you probably know that Stanford professor Carol Dweck popularized the Growth Mindset Theory.

Her research showed how some people find failure debilitating.

They feel stress when it happens and tend to avoid activities that cause it.

Others experience failure as an opportunity to learn.

They recognize it’s part of the training process, and it will equip them for future successes.

The first group has a Fixed Mindset, and the second group has a Growth Mindset.

Recruiters and hiring managers who have a Fixed Mindset are in for a rough ride.

Why? Because the recruiting process is full of obstacles, setbacks, failures, and rejections.

With the wrong mindset, it becomes difficult to pick up the phone, send another email, and avoid procrastinating.

If you’re struggling with follow-through on your recruiting tasks and time blocks, this may be the root of the problem.

Here’s the good news:

Dweck’s research suggests that a Growth Mindset is something an individual can grow and foster.

If you’d like to learn more about Growth Mindset for business applications, here is a good place to start:  HBR:  What Having a Growth Mindset Actually Means.

If you change your mindset, you’ll ultimately change your results.

 

The Simple Psychology of Real Estate Recruiting [2nd Edition]

Unlock the secrets of effective real estate recruiting. Revised to include actionable frameworks for sharper execution and to help you turn psychological theory into a repeatable recruiting system.

Creating Pacts to Avoid Distraction

Creating Pacts to Avoid Distraction

Notice the two parts to Nir’s formula: a pre-commitment and an external force to keep you accountable to that commitment. For recruiting setting goals and time-blocks in your schedule is not enough. Most people need some kind of external accountability, as well.

Look for Individuals Who Want to be Measured

Look for Individuals Who Want to be Measured

It’s not that people with a growth mindset don’t experience failure—they just see failure as an opportunity to learn new things, to be challenged, and to experience curiosity. This is an important topic to cover during interviews and follow-up conversations with your prospects. If you find someone who likes being measured, you’ve likely found someone who will push through the inherent failures of growing a real estate business and experience long-term success.