1장
Embracing Rejection: The Counterintuitive Path to Success
What if everything you thought you knew about rejection was wrong? What if the path to extraordinary success wasn't about avoiding "no" but actively seeking it out? This revolutionary premise forms the heart of "Go For No!" - a slim volume that has become a cult classic among top performers across industries. Despite being just 80 pages, readers report life-changing "success epiphanies" by page 32. The book has garnered passionate followers from Fortune 500 executives to Hollywood celebrities, with Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran calling it "the single most important mindset shift for entrepreneurs." Co-author Richard Fenton's personal journey fuels the book's authenticity - after discovering his dream of becoming a professional speaker at age eight, he spent thirty years avoiding it due to fear of rejection. Only at forty did he finally embrace the "Go for No" philosophy, transforming his life within a year. Through a captivating parable, this book challenges us to rethink our relationship with failure and success in ways that feel both revolutionary and intuitively right.
2장
The Turning Point: When Three Wins Lead to Failure
Eric Bratton was having the kind of day most salespeople dream about. Three sales closed before lunch - a personal best that had him calling his wife Elaine from a phone booth, practically bouncing with excitement. The first sale was a standard package to Johnson Manufacturing, the second an upgraded solution to Metro Graphics, and the third, his biggest yet, was a complete system overhaul for Bradford Industries. Their Hawaii vacation fund would get a $3,200 boost from the commissions, though Eric cautiously noted he still needed one more sale to hit his monthly quota of $175,000. Feeling accomplished, he decided to reward himself by heading home early to catch the Lakers-Celtics game.
The next morning found Eric grumbling about the mountain of paperwork that follows successful sales - purchase orders, implementation schedules, and customer specifications that needed processing. His intimidating boss Frank White's office, visible through the glass partition, featured a polished brass plaque reading "Hit your quota or hit the bricks!" - a daily reminder of the pressure cooker environment at Advanced Systems Corporation. After spending two hours catching up on administrative tasks, Eric got cornered by Tim from marketing, who desperately needed an experienced salesperson for a "quick" focus group about new product features. Despite his growing to-do list and pending quota, Eric agreed - revealing a pattern of difficulty saying no to requests that would prove significant later.
When the focus group stretched from the promised 45 minutes to nearly four hours, Eric called his brother Carl to blow off steam and arrange their monthly golf game. Learning Carl couldn't play until May due to tax season (he was a CPA), Eric impulsively decided to play golf alone the next morning. He booked a 10:30 tee time at Strawberry Creek, rationalizing that he could still make afternoon sales calls and maybe even land that fourth sale. That evening, while loading his Callaway clubs into his Toyota Camry, Elaine playfully teased him about taking time off midweek when quotas loomed. "That's why I'm in sales!" Eric proudly responded, masking his growing unease.
Later that night, while reviewing his calendar, Eric realized with a jolt that tomorrow was already Thursday, not Wednesday as he'd thought, leaving him just two days to make his quota instead of three. Despite this realization and knowing he needed $42,000 more in sales, he decided to play golf anyway, falling asleep dreaming of "birdies and eagles" rather than sales strategies. This seemingly small decision - to reward himself for partial success rather than pushing forward - would become the pivotal moment where Eric's life trajectory would split into two dramatically different paths.
What Eric couldn't see was how this pattern of behavior - backing off after some success rather than leveraging momentum - was keeping him from reaching his true potential. His celebration was premature, his satisfaction with "good enough" preventing him from discovering what "extraordinary" might look like. The three sales that seemed like such a triumph were actually setting the stage for his greatest failure - a pattern that would repeat itself unless he learned to push past initial success toward genuine excellence. His story would become a cautionary tale about the danger of premature satisfaction and the true cost of not maintaining focus until the final goal is achieved.
3장
The Mysterious Awakening: Meeting Your Future Self
In a bizarre turn of events, Eric found himself in unfamiliar surroundings after a fall at the golf course. Disoriented and afraid, he explored what appeared to be a luxurious home - exotic art on the walls, thick carpet underfoot, and a terrace overlooking a manicured golf course. Following the sound of singing, he encountered a uniformed maid who called him "Mr. Bratton" and mentioned his wife was buying art in Europe - information he supposedly had told her himself.
When she commented he didn't "look so good," Eric examined himself in a mirror and recoiled in shock. Staring back was an older version of himself with gray hair, facial creases, and twenty extra pounds. The panicked Eric questioned the maid, Renee, who revealed he was a businessman who wrote books - not a copier salesman as he remembered being.
In his study, Eric discovered three hardcover books he supposedly authored: "Fail Your Way to Success," "One of These Days Is Now!" and "How to Have the Most Productive Year of Your Life." More shocking still, the calendar showed it was March 23, 2000 - ten years later than Eric remembered. He called the phone number from his book jacket and reached himself - the other Eric Bratton - who agreed to meet him.
When the other Eric arrived, they faced each other like identical twins - except this Eric was tanner, twenty pounds lighter, and immaculately dressed. Rather than panicking at this impossible scenario, the successful Eric responded with calm confidence: "I don't believe anything happens by accident."
Later, the phone rang with a message from Elaine - not Eric's Elaine but his counterpart's wife. She mentioned buying art in Florence before heading to Madrid, living the dream of traveling the world. This made Eric wonder about his own Elaine - whether she was worried about him, or if she even existed in this reality.
This surreal scenario forces us to confront an uncomfortable question: If you could meet your future self, would you be proud of who you've become? Would your future self want to trade places with you, or would they be grateful for the path they chose? The contrast between the two Erics - one successful beyond his wildest dreams, one still struggling with the same limitations - sets the stage for profound lessons about the choices that shape our destinies.
4장
The Failure Breakthrough: Two Letters from Greatness
Over dinner at an upscale restaurant, the two Erics discovered the exact moment their lives diverged. Ten years earlier, both had experienced a pivotal conversation with Harold, the district manager at Dubin's Clothing. After a big sale, Harold had asked a simple but profound question: "What did the customer say no to?"
This question revealed that Eric had ended the sale when the customer hit Eric's mental spending limit - not when the customer was actually done buying. Harold's insight was transformative: "The salesperson never decides when the sale is over; the customer does." He told Eric he was just "two letters away from greatness": N and O.
Using restaurant menu diagrams, successful Eric explained the paradigm shift that changed everything. Most people view success and failure as opposite ends of a spectrum, trying to move toward success and away from failure. But the correct model shows failure as the halfway point on the road to success - not a destination to avoid but a necessary stepping stone. Most people turn back at failure, not realizing success lies straight ahead if they would just keep going.
"We've been taught to avoid failure at all costs," successful Eric explained passionately. "We sugarcoat it with words like 'mistake' or 'glitch' when we should be desensitizing ourselves to both the word and experience of failing."
The two Erics discovered that after Harold's lesson about embracing rejection, their paths dramatically diverged. One transformed his sales approach and became the top salesman, eventually becoming a Vice President at CopyQuest. The other's performance worsened until he was fired two months later. As they left the restaurant, the narrator realized he had "stumbled over the truth, picked himself up, and gone on his merry way as if nothing had happened at all."
This revelation challenges everything we've been taught about failure. What if our aversion to failure - something we've been conditioned to fear since childhood - is actually the primary barrier to our success? What if, rather than being opposites, failure and success are intimately connected points on the same journey? The most successful people aren't those who avoid failure; they're those who fail more frequently, learn from each rejection, and keep moving forward when others would turn back.
5장
Beyond Tolerance: The Wantingness to Fail
As they flew toward Monterey in a private jet - with successful Eric as the pilot - the narrator questioned whether simply embracing rejection truly led to his counterpart's extraordinary success. The successful Eric clarified a crucial distinction: his "willingness to hear no" got his career on the right track, but it was his "wantingness to fail" that made all the difference.
"There's a world of difference between willingness and wantingness," Eric explained. "Willingness means you'll tolerate rejection. Wantingness means you actively seek it out until rejection becomes fun."
Instead of setting goals for yes's, Eric sets goals for collecting no's, which prevents him from slowing down after success. He shared how one of his top salespeople won both the award for most rejections and top salesperson in the company - not a coincidence but a direct correlation.
"The most empowering word isn't 'yes' but 'NO,'" Eric insisted. "Hearing yes teaches nothing, while persisting through rejection builds character and self-esteem."
This approach completely inverts traditional sales training. When salespeople reach quotas, they typically slow down to avoid the "unnecessary pain" of rejection. But with no-goals, success actually increases activity. If the narrator had aimed for sixteen no's instead of four yes's, his Monday success would have driven him to make more calls, not fewer.
"I haven't set traditional success goals in ten years," Eric revealed. "I focus solely on increasing my failure rate, trusting that successes will naturally follow." Even his wife Elaine applies this principle in her three art galleries, ensuring no customer leaves without saying "no" at least once.
Setting "no goals" provides built-in protection against prematurely ending hot streaks. When salespeople hit a streak of yes's, they typically back off, but with no-goals, they actually increase sales attempts to hit their rejection targets. Just as a baseball manager wouldn't bench a player on a hot streak, salespeople shouldn't take themselves out of the game when succeeding.
The narrator realized that when he was "three for three" on that fateful day, he took himself out of the game by going home early. But with no-goals, he would have kept going, potentially having an extraordinary week instead of ultimately falling short of his quota.
This concept of "wantingness to fail" represents a complete psychological reversal from how most people approach challenges. Rather than merely tolerating rejection as an unfortunate necessity, what if we actively sought it out? What if we celebrated each "no" as progress toward our goals? This mindset shift doesn't just change results - it transforms the entire experience of pursuing success.
6장
The Failure Quotient: How Many Times Will You Try?
"What's your failure quotient?" Eric asked. "How many times are you willing to fail before succeeding?"
To illustrate this concept, Eric cited Abraham Lincoln's numerous political defeats before becoming president, R.H. Macy's seven failed attempts at launching his department store, and Colonel Sanders' two years of rejections before his first KFC success.
"Like doctors who must say 'next' after losing a patient, salespeople must learn to move past rejection rather than analyzing failures obsessively," Eric explained. "The key isn't understanding why you fear rejection but numbing yourself to 'no' by experiencing it so frequently it loses power over you."
During their golf game at Pebble Beach, Kurt - one of Eric's top salespeople - explained how Eric's "Go for No" philosophy helped him overcome "Pike Syndrome" - the self-imposed limitations that hold most people back.
"Put pike fish in a tank with smaller fish and a glass divider," Kurt explained. "The pike will try to eat the smaller fish, hitting the glass repeatedly. Eventually, they stop trying. Remove the glass, and the pike will starve to death surrounded by food - they've been conditioned to believe they can't succeed."
Kurt credited Eric for teaching him to "enjoy bumping his nose" against rejection, breaking through his own self-imposed limitations.
Switching carts midway through the round, Cheryl shared with "Edward" (the narrator's alias) that skill is highly overrated in sales success. She recounted how a consultant saved a struggling insurance company by having agents approach prospects with the counterintuitive opening line: "You don't want to buy any life insurance, do you?"
Though 59 of 60 people rejected them, agents could approach enough people in a day to make one sale daily - far better than their previous average. Cheryl explained that successful selling, like gold mining, is about removing enough "dirt" (getting through rejections) to find the gold (yes answers). The key is to "fail faster" by making more attempts rather than perfecting technique.
Over lunch, Cheryl emphasized another crucial insight: "No doesn't mean never, it means not yet." She explained that 92% of salespeople quit after hearing "no" four times, yet 60% of customers say "no" four times before saying "yes." Cheryl tracks her rejections, always seeking at least one "no" per sales call because it allows her to ask "why?" and learn what's needed to eventually make the sale.
This perspective transforms rejection from a dead end into a detour - not a signal to stop but an invitation to find another route. The question isn't whether you'll face rejection but how you'll respond when it inevitably comes. Will you quit, or will you see it as valuable feedback guiding you toward eventual success?
7장
Failing Big: The Courage to Pursue Audacious Goals
"If you're going to fail, fail big!" Kurt advised over lunch at the Pebble Beach clubhouse. He explained that pursuing larger accounts with greater potential yields better returns for the same effort. By targeting clients who need twenty copiers instead of two, a salesperson with a 10% closing rate needs only one success to equal the results of ten smaller sales.
"Rejection feels the same regardless of deal size," Kurt emphasized, "but the rewards for success are exponentially greater with larger opportunities."
This concept challenges us to examine whether our goals are limited by fear of failure rather than our true capabilities. Are we playing small because we're afraid of big rejection? What opportunities are we missing because we're unwilling to risk hearing "no" from more significant prospects?
Earlier, while flying the private jet, Eric had encouraged the narrator to expand his comfort zone, explaining that "courage is not the absence of fear; courage is acting in the face of fear." As they flew up the Pacific coast toward Monterey, the narrator gradually relaxed and began to enjoy the experience - a metaphor for how embracing discomfort leads to new possibilities.
"The comfort zone is never static," Eric later explained. "It's either expanding or shrinking." By forcing himself to speak publicly despite being "scared to death on stage," Eric continuously expanded his capabilities.
This principle applies beyond sales to every area of life. When we avoid failure by setting safe goals, we don't just limit our success - we actually shrink our capacity for growth. Conversely, when we pursue audacious goals and embrace the inevitable rejections along the way, we expand not just our results but our sense of what's possible.
The concept of "failing big" also connects to the idea that rejection is a constant - you'll face it whether pursuing small or large goals. If rejection is inevitable, why not make it worthwhile by attaching it to goals that truly matter? As the author suggests, the sting of rejection feels roughly the same regardless of the size of the opportunity, but the potential rewards are vastly different.
This perspective invites us to reconsider how we measure risk. The real risk isn't in hearing "no" from a big prospect - it's in never asking at all. It's in the opportunities never pursued, the growth never experienced, and the success never achieved because we chose comfort over courage.
8장
Organizational Failure: Leading a Culture of Productive Rejection
When asked for his leadership advice, Eric offered two transformative perspectives that extend the "Go for No" philosophy from individual performance to organizational culture.
First, he explained "failing exponentially" - multiplying failure rates across an organization. If 100 salespeople each get five additional "no's" per day, that creates 100,000 more annual rejections without increasing costs, dramatically improving results. He referenced Thomas Edison, who hired additional inventors despite their lesser talents because he needed to "fail faster" than he could alone.
"When leaders fear failure, everyone in the organization adopts the same fear," Eric warned. This creates a culture of risk aversion where innovation stagnates and potential remains untapped.
Eric's second leadership principle was even more counterintuitive: "Reward people for their failures, not just their successes." At CopyQuest, they give "Producer Pin" awards to top salespeople but also "Go for No!" awards to those with the most failed attempts.
Cheryl admitted the failure trophy meant more to her than the success pin because it validated her internal effort rather than just external achievement. Kurt added that paychecks already reward production, while recognition for persistence through rejection acknowledges the courage required to keep going when others would quit.
"Over time, the two award lists have become mirrors of each other," Eric noted, "proving that 'Yes is the destination, No is how you get there!'"
This organizational perspective reveals how deeply our cultural aversion to failure permeates our institutions. Traditional management focuses exclusively on outcomes, ignoring the process that produces those outcomes. By celebrating only success, we inadvertently discourage the very behaviors that create success - persistence, courage, and resilience through rejection.
Imagine how different our workplaces, schools, and communities would be if we actively celebrated productive failure. What if teachers rewarded students not just for correct answers but for their willingness to attempt difficult problems? What if companies recognized employees who proposed innovative ideas that failed but generated valuable learning? What if parents praised children not just for achievements but for courage in the face of challenges?
This shift requires redefining what we measure and value. Rather than focusing exclusively on outcomes, we must recognize the inputs that drive those outcomes - particularly our willingness to risk rejection in pursuit of meaningful goals. By creating cultures that celebrate productive failure, we unlock human potential that remains dormant in environments where only success receives recognition.
9장
The Return: Transforming Dream into Reality
The helicopter landed at the Moscone Center in San Francisco for the International Society of Sales Executives conference. In the green room, Eric shared with the narrator his final wisdom about a salesman selling "permanent retirement property" (grave sites).
"Successful people who keep challenging themselves will likely fail at their last attempt before death - and that's okay," Eric reflected. He embraced the narrator, explaining that he represented the narrator's potential that needed to be accepted. As the narrator prepared to watch Eric address the crowd, he tripped on the stairs and fell.
The narrator woke in a hospital bed with Elaine and Carl nearby, discovering he'd been unconscious for four days after falling out of bed and hitting his head. He recounted his entire "dream" about meeting his future self, but couldn't find the page he thought he'd ripped from Eric's book. Despite the apparent dream, the narrator had internalized the lessons.
Six months later, the narrator had transformed his sales approach. Now leading in sales for three of the last five months and on track to be salesman of the year, he was most proud of leading in the number of rejections. During a meeting with Robert Merrill at Callaway Golf, he recognized a photo of La Costa Resort's seventh green - taken from the house he saw in his "dream." When Merrill mentioned eventually moving to Scottsdale, the narrator confidently stated he'd buy Merrill's house one day.
As he left, he discovered the missing page from Eric's book on the floor - confirming his experience wasn't just a dream after all.
This conclusion brings the story full circle, showing the tangible transformation that occurs when we embrace rejection rather than avoiding it. The narrator's journey represents the potential transformation available to all of us when we shift our relationship with failure and rejection.
The discovery of the missing page suggests a deeper truth: the wisdom we need often exists beyond our current perspective. Sometimes we need to "dream" of possibilities beyond our limited thinking to break through self-imposed barriers. The page - physical evidence of a seemingly impossible experience - reminds us that transformation often feels supernatural until we experience it ourselves.
By embracing rejection, setting no-goals, and celebrating failure as progress toward success, we unlock potential that remains dormant in those who play it safe. We discover that yes truly is the destination, and no is how we get there.
