Years ago, I came across a phone book from my college days. It was in a box of stuff that I’ve moved across the country and back without ever opening. You know, really important stuff that requires me to buy a larger house in order to store it.

I’d decided to clean out some space in the storage area in our basement and I came across this old phone book. I don’t know why I still had it. I hadn’t used a phone book in years. For you younger readers out there, a phone book is where we old people would look for contact information for a person or business we wanted to call before all that information became available online or on your actual phone.

For some reason, I thumbed through the phone book. I saw my name and old phone number and smiled. It was a good time in my life. As I looked through the business numbers, I saw places where I’d called companies, scratched out their names, made notes and then called the next company in line. I was confused as to why I did this at first but then it all came flooding back to me.

When I was in film school, I’d always need to get some kind of free support or help from companies for some aspect of the film. Once I needed to find a Confederate flag for a shoot with a one-hour notice. Another time I needed to rent a parakeet for a shoot. Not as easy as you think it would be in a small southern town. Another time, I needed to find letterman jackets for a high school from the 1980s. Surprisingly, a local sports company had some that had never been picked up and I got a deal on them.

As I looked through the pages, I noticed a pattern to all the places I’d called. Almost every time, the first company I’d call would say “no” to me. Then I’d ask them why and after they told me, I’d devise an answer to that rejection and call the next place with a way to overcome it. Then, if they said “no”, I’d ask why again and the pattern would repeat itself. Eventually, someone would say “yes” and I’d get what I needed.

One time, I needed to find a hot air balloon for a film shoot. Unfortunately, there was only one hot air balloon place within 100 miles of the school. I called them and they politely said “no.” I had no choice but to call them again the next day and try to overcome their rejections and they said “no, thank you” again. I called a third time a few days later to offer them a tax break for donating their services to the school and they said that was nice but they were still not interested. Eventually, on my seventh call, they agreed to donate their services if I agreed to stop calling them! My sheer tenacity got me what I wanted.

There were never more than seven companies that I’d have to call in order to get what I needed. That’s when I realized that, at most, it would take me seven “no’s” to get one “yes”. This is such an incredibly valuable tool that I have used throughout my life since then. It doesn’t work 100% of the time but it does work about 75% of the time.

The problem with most people is that they can’t deal with rejection. If one, two or three people say “no” to them, then they quit. They move on to something else and get a few more rejections and then their pattern repeats itself. You can’t get anywhere if you can’t deal with a few “no’s” in your life.

I’ve lived by this rule and decided that it’ll take me seven tries before I quit trying anything. Once it was finding a deal on a U-haul truck. I called 4-5 places and they all gave me a price I couldn’t afford. I remember this because my roommate kept bugging me to quit wasting my time and just pay what they were asking. I insisted that a deal was there, I just had to find it and, sure enough, three calls later one place was having a special deal that was actually less than what I was willing to pay.

I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.

~ Sylvester Stallone

Another time was during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when all the gas prices skyrocketed. I was driving a gas-guzzling SUV and couldn’t find a place that would give me enough money in trade to actually cover what I owed on it. I was not going to pay $1500 for someone to just take my SUV. I took a friend of mine all over town to dealership after dealership and, eventually, he said the same thing to me about quitting because I’m not going to get the deal I was looking for.

Somehow that fueled me even more. I was not only determined to get the deal I needed, but also to prove him wrong. I saw a car I was interested in online at a dealership that I’d never heard of and when I went there to look at it, I waited in the lot for a salesperson to come talk to me. After 15 minutes of waiting and no one in sight, I went into the office and asked to speak to a salesperson. The secretary told me they didn’t have salespeople and to just tell her what I was interested in. I did and after copying my driver’s license and insurance card, she gave me the keys to test drive it.

It was an odd experience until I found out that this was a non-profit dealership. What? Yes, that was the same reaction I had. It was a dealership that was started by a credit union and they sold cars at the price they paid for them as a service to their members. The credit union covered all the dealerships overhead expenses, so they didn’t need to make a profit. They gave me almost double what the other dealerships were offering me in trade. Obviously, I traded my SUV in and got a great deal. Here’s their website in case you’re looking for a great deal on a car – http://www.cuabs.com.

To this day, I repeatedly hear many friends and family ask me how I got such a great deal on things and the answer is that I don’t quit trying after 2-3 rejections. To find a great deal or get what you want in life, it’s going to be difficult. No one or place just gives you what you want the first time you ask for it. Most people are too busy or just not willing to keep getting rejected, so they either pay too much or simply quit.

My suggestion to you is that if you can hold out for at least seven “no’s” and figure out how to overcome them, then more often than not, you will get the “yes” you’re looking for.