David Catanho @perrocontodo: I just had a job interview that went south. How do you avoid beating yourself after the lost opportunity?
ANSWER:
There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically. “May be,” the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed. “May be,” replied the old man. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. “May be,” answered the farmer. The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. “Maybe”, said the farmer.
In other words, don’t beat yourself up. There’s many opportunities for success.
Let me give you a more real-world example. There was a stupid business in 2008, the worst economic year since 1932. The business was to build up big email lists of people and use it to raise money for local charities. What a horrible idea. So they switched business models. The business became Groupon. Heck, who knows where it ends up. But the founders became billionaires. So it was a bad economy. “We’ll see”. It was a bad business idea. “We’ll see”. Who who would’ve predicted that outcome.
Again, the interview was bad. That was one arrow that hit you but you’re still breathing.
Beating yourself up over the interview is the second arrow. Don’t let it kill you.
Accept that RIGHT NOW you have bad feelings about that interview. And then accept it and move on. You have no idea about the final outcomes but I can guarantee you if you follow the other guidelines in this post about overall health then you will do well.