No passage better summarizes the philosophical topicality of Dr. Eli Joseph’s new book than the following. He states, “I feel confident that everyone has been rejected before. It also seems logical that most people do not want to put those rejections out there for all to see. I’d like to challenge you to perfect your rejection resume. Embrace it for what it offers you—opportunities to gain experience and improve! It is strange how people are afraid to discuss their failures. If we welcome the topic of failure into the conversation it can put success into a much greater perspective.

There is value in understanding the opposite side of success.” It’s from this understanding Joseph states the true path to a desirable self-determinative quality can occur. It’s not always how you envision it, but the opportunities arising from an unanticipated change in plan are numerous. “People love to say that they are competing with themselves. That there will never be any greater competition. I respectfully disagree.

Time is our biggest competition, and it does not change no matter what we may do to manipulate it,” Joseph says subsequently. “You may not believe that you are not competing against time. But how do you feel when deadlines are approaching? Why do you keep hitting the snooze button in the morning? Time is our biggest asset, and it can also be our biggest liability. We cannot do anything without using up time. It’s used to talk with each other, interact, and achieve goals. And when it comes down to the facts, none of us is competing against each other. We are competing against time to achieve what we’ve set out to do…”

Hence the book’s title, The Perfect Rejection Resume: A Reader’s Guide to Building a Career Through Failure. With Joseph, the comprehension of why one falls is almost as important as – if not more so – understanding how to achieve one’s dreams and goals. “The single greatest tip I can offer you…is to use your failures to craft your dream job,” he writes. “…It is hard to accept rejection for something that you want, especially when it is because that person or organization does not want you. You are not their dream…Is it going to be a rocky road, a smooth path, or a bit of both? Only you can decide. Most people find that parts are smooth (the easy parts), and some parts are rocky (the toughest challenges), and the reward comes from the challenges, the tenacity to continue from the easier parts…”

By articulating things so clearly, Joseph is able to direct the reader’s attention primarily to what he clearly believes are the most important ideological facets of titularly Building a career from failure. While the style and aesthetic may not be for everyone, particularly those accustomed to colder, drier reads driven less by actualized prose and more by descriptions backed by surveys and data, those who are open to Dr. Joseph’s mix of the literary with the distinctively non-fiction/tactical will find the overall experience of Perfect Rejection Resume a welcome surprise.

Garth Thomas