What rejection in your career has ultimately proved to be a gift?

David Kopasz, MD, Seattle VA

My first year of college I failed calculus (wanted to design spacecraft for NASA), they put me on academic probation, and I sat staring at my desk and thought maybe books I liked could help me choose my career: Jung’s “Modern Man in Search of Soul,” Peck’s “The Road Less Travelled” – I became a psychiatrist!

Miranda Huffman, MD, MEd

I wasn’t elected chief resident during residency. I think having the mental space as a 3rd year resident to focus on myself and my husband has set me up for better balance and stronger boundaries that allow me to LOVE MY JOB!!

Mariah Robertson, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

In high school I had a basketball coach who didn’t know how to coach women. He cut several of us from going to districts my Junior year and several quit. I wanted to too. But I decided that would mean he won. I went on to play college basketball, met my best friends, and learned the value of never giving up.

It had significant impact at that time in my life that someone in a power position was making decisions that were causing young women to feel really insecure. Looking back I think it shaped my leadership style. I never want to make anyone feel like that. #MedTwitter #closler

Carl Streed, Jr., MD, MPH, Boston Medical Center

Multiple rejections from various programs at various points in my training. My path has been wonderful, but never one I could have predicted a decade ago.

Mays Ali, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

My 7th grade gym teacher told me and my mom that I wouldn’t succeed because I was terrible at sports. It was one of the first times I realized just how much of a rock and support system my mom was, and is to this day.

Panagis Galiatsatos, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Wanted to be an astronaut … took an astrophysics courses in college … it didn’t work out (long story). Being a doctor and treating people who have the same elemental makeup of stars and the cosmo, I feel like I still got my wish.

Stuart Ray, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Rejected by the University of Tennessee and all other medical schools to which I applied; was waitlisted at Vanderbilt School of Medicine and got in with only weeks to spare. Vanderbilt was a perfect fit for me, nurturing and productive.

Colleen Christmas, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Rejected for an important award. These “opportunities” stir up those self-defeating explanations, “I am just not good enough,” which with much practice over the years I have been better able to replace with , “What I do most not match what they are looking for.”