Hello, listeners. I'm Valeria Rusnak and welcome
to the episode 12 of the Rejected Pre -Med Podcast,
a space for honest conversations about rejection
and resilience. Rejection is often redirection.
Yes, it may sting at first, but it can lead you
to meaningful personal and professional growth.
In today's episode, please welcome Karan Woodwani.
Karan lives the life of many archetypes, a speaker,
comic, singer, digital enthusiast, connector,
and engager. His experience overcoming stuttering
has shown him that he can harness his obstacles
into a superpower to achieve mastery in various
areas of life. His debut memoir, So You Want
To Be A, blends poetry, music, comedy, and wisdom
to offer practical advice for anyone seeking
clarity and a way forward. Though Karan has lived
in Spain, Nigeria and Canada and worked in over
28 countries, he chose to establish his roots
in Canada and now calls Vancouver Island his
cherished home. So thank you so much Karan for
taking the time to join us on this podcast. I
am thrilled to have you here and excited to explore
your fascinating background and the many creative
paths that you have pursued. So I will start
off by asking how do you how do you feel about
doing today's episode? Thank you so much, Valeria.
I feel really good. I'm glad to be here. Thank
you for making the time. A feeling in one word,
you know, I'm excited. The book has launched
last month. It's been just under two weeks and
I've gotten really good feedback and people are
really loving it and sharing their photos on
social media. It's been good. That's great to
hear. It's a great book. I read it, I'll ask
you a lot of questions on it today. And I said
this to you before we started the recording and
I'll say this now, I really enjoyed it. And yeah,
how did you decide to write a book? Was it just
like one day you had a realization, I'm going
to do this? Or it was this slow burning kind
of feeling? Like what pushed you to do this?
And who was the ideal target audience in your
mind? What went through your mind as you were
doing and decided to do this project? I would
say it's been quite a journey. So it's been like
seven years or so. I remember starting this book
in 2015 in my undergrad where I would journal
a lot. So I would write on certain topics and
I was reading a lot of philosophy at the time
as well. So maybe that has something to do with
it. It moved from journals to notepads. I still
have some of these journals at home in a box,
five or 10 journals filled with words. It moved
from physical to then word documents. And then
after to constructing and to actually organizing
each topic into such concepts. years like you'll
see in the book where it's broken out into 30
segments. And then because I was doing a variety
of work, I was obviously I was working full -time
a job and then I was doing stand -up comedy and
then I had dabbled in music as well. I wanted
a way to compile all of that together. So the
thought was can I create a book with the cross
-media aspect that would consider and take into
account our full digital lives while still having
the physical book for readers put on their bookshops.
I really like the fact that there's QR codes,
there's videos, and sometimes then I thought,
oh, I'm getting a bit tired of reading because
my eyes hurt. So it's like, oh, okay, cool, an
Instagram reel. And that way, that's a new way
to process information and wait to process content.
So yeah, I really appreciated that. And I believe
we are in the greatest era right now where digital
has come into almost everything. I enjoy pen
to paper, but we live and we got to adapt to
the digital world. Yeah, that's right. And in
the book, you mentioned you've lived in so many
places and you being immersed in so many different
cultures and jobs throughout your life. What
does rejection or failure mean to you? I want
to ask because around the world, there's so many
times people may define those experiences very
differently. And yeah, I want to hear what you
have to say for how would you define rejection
is it simply a redirection is it a lesson or
is it something else completely I know you identify
as a very spiritual person as well so I wonder
if that goes into play when you define rejection
I want to hear that perspective a little bit
okay for sure for sure okay so I think even with
the rejection you only have control over what
you have control over so for a lack of better
words like you you must not reject yourself first
most. You mentioned spirituality, so there's
a big quote that I live by and literally tattooed
on me is that like human being could lift himself
by himself because the self alone is the best
friend of the self and the self alone is the
enemy of the self. I think for a lot of times
our rejection actually If it's not coming externally,
it's coming internally. And the fear as well.
So I remember doing a video on fear and I say,
fear is like rocket fuel. You feel it, right?
And sometimes you can close off or you can really
jump into it. So for instance, let's say you're
in class and you're fearful to... This has happened.
This is a personal story. When I was younger,
I would be very fearful to read out loud because
I was scared I was going to stutter. So I would,
I would time it out to go to the bathroom. You
know how they got to like, like everybody turned
to read out of the book. Oh yeah. Yeah. We had
that too. Yeah. So today like call upon me. I'll
read you anything. I'm happy to. So I think,
I think Fear can hold you back, but I think fear
is something that you gotta utilize. And you
can tell from how I'm feeling about it right
now, it's like a little something in you, it's
a fire in you that you have to actually fuel.
The more you get rid of fear, the more easier
you can react to it. It's an emotion, right?
The body is full of energy and emotions. How
you think is gonna determine how you feel, which
is going to determine how you act. I, yeah, I'm
fairly spiritual. I practice a lot of Tai Chi
as well. And Tai Chi, if you know, is all about
Chi. So you're literally moving Chi. You're moving
energy in your body to keep it healthy and able,
but realizing that you're building up that energy
from what you do, who you associate with and
how you spend your time. what you eat, what you
feed yourself, not just what you feed yourself
food -wise, what you feed yourself content -wise.
So, I would say rejection. I faced a lot of rejection
in terms of, yeah, I also applied for med school
two years back. I did stand -up comedy because
I thought, oh, that's a good way of alleviating
some sorrow and pain, just how doctors do that.
Laughter is a great pain medicine, right? Yeah.
When you meet your friends who you know and you
joke around with and you haven't seen them in
a while, everything comes back and you're at
those moments of laughter and enjoyment. So I
think when it comes to rejection, don't get bummed
down by it. Know that, okay, sometimes it takes
a long time to get to where you got to go. JK
Rowling, everybody knows, rejected a thousand
times. Any inventor, any person who has had to
really fight for what they believed in, they've
often faced a lot of rejection. And that's because
we put so much emphasis on the outside. We want
validation. Obviously in the case of JK Rowling,
she needed a publisher to publish her book. somebody
will take that chance. I think the more you advocate,
it happens. It just takes time. That's the key
is like you get one life shot. We're sitting
in the universe on this planet called Earth and
one day that experience of you and I talking
right now will not be possible. So maximize that
to the best that you can. That's a good message
and this is such great timing because I recently
I made a post and I remember and this is not
my quote It's one of the attendees from my events
the end of my events when I talk about handling
rejections and building resilience I give out
these wood disks to attendees and they write
their main takeaways their message and she wrote
others can only reject you when you reject yourself
So I find that really relates to what you said
And that was writing in my post that when you
believe in yourself, when you work towards your
goals, you know what you want and you go towards
it. Others, people's disapproval of you, which
is natural, not everyone will approve of you.
Yeah, and their rejections of you, however you
want to call it, they don't hold as much weight
because you know what it is that you want to
go for and eventually with enough consistency
and believing yourself and self -compassion that
resilience builds and with that resilience, success
comes sooner or later. whatever success means
to you because sometimes it can be defined differently
depending on who you are and what your values
are. Totally. So you can change your perspective
around rejection and failure and not be scared
of it if you give yourself more validation and
that belief in yourself and you trust yourself
to know to do what's right, eventually and we
all make mistakes or sometimes we all fail but
trusting ourselves that whatever choice we make,
we will get out of it or we will make the best
of it and we'll make the best of whatever comes
at us. So yeah, thank you for sharing that. Something
you said that really stuck out for me was you
said as you're building, okay, so you're building
trust with yourself and as you Just with yourself
you get success. The best success that you can
grow is actually it's not just monetarily wealth
but there's another spiritual success that you
can grow. So imagine if every person on this
planet was relatively joyful like that's the
one emotion. If you were walking around everywhere
and everybody was super smiley and like happy,
you're like, wow, this is really good. But we
don't see that a lot, right? We see a lot of
poverty. We see homelessness. We see anger. We
see aggression. We see sadness. We see, we see
this world and not in balance. And I think though
I'll say to you, the world is not balanced, right?
You have typhoons, sunlight, you got rain, you
got snow. So the key is remaining at equilibrium
almost. Not being affected. So that comes back
to rejection. If you have rejection, so be it.
Don't allow it to take you away from what you're
trying to get to. Keeping in that equilibrium
where you're cool, calm and collected at all
moments of your life to get to where you have
to go. How would you keep that equilibrium? Because
I, you're right, absolutely agree. Because when
we do find that equilibrium, we're more in tune
with our intuition. And we're more in tune with
our intuition. I find that what we need and what
we want, they become one in the same. Yeah. And
life just seems, it's not always easy, but it
seems easier. And it's more joyful at the same
time. But how do you find that equilibrium? Where
do you start? Especially when there's typhoons,
there's like winds, there's tornadoes, and there's
so much that life can throw at us. Where can
you find it? And how do you start? Okay, that's
a very good question. So I think you find it
through yourself, time, time on your own, make
sure every day, even if it's 20 minutes through.
three minutes or something but you spend it with
yourself internally and sometimes remaining quiet
that inner energy gets restored because we're
so quick to talk about the other person we're
so quick to judge we're so quick to to just constantly
be speaking and sometimes not for purpose so
I think you regain that energy in what you are
doing every day. For me, for many years, that
was Tai Chi. There wouldn't be a 24 -hour period
where I would miss my own self -practice. Once
you miss one day of practice, you're going back.
It's like people's routines. An athlete needs
to train all the time to get better and better
and better. As a human being, we need to remember
that we're not the only people on this planet.
We don't have control over everything and we're
so insignificant to the greater whatever you
want to call that's happening. Yeah, this is
a great reminder because as you were talking
about finding equilibrium, I was also thinking
what do I do to find equilibrium for myself?
I know I love to journal and it helps me process
things. It's not always easy, especially on days
when there's too many emotions. It is possible
to feel frustrated and angry and happy at the
same time. It is possible. So journaling does
help me break that down and find that inner voice
in me to help me calm down and give me that equilibrium
back. There's also, have you heard of the book
called Artist's Way? No. Hi, Julia Cameron. Yeah,
so my friend introduced it to me and it was,
well for me, it was transformative, it was life
-changing. And it talks about this idea, first
of all, of journaling, but it also talks about
this idea of artist dates and artist dates is
not like you going out on a date with an artist.
That's not what it is. You give yourself time
in a day, whenever you have time, if it's maybe
if it's like once per week, depending on how
busy you are, like once per week, it can be even
once per month. where you go out and just do
an activity that you would not normally do and
do it by yourself. For example, it could go to
this restaurant that you've never been to, but
go by yourself and that can feel really weird.
But the more you do those, the more you find
your inner voice because you can finally hear
yourself talking, not that social media stuff
that all this information being thrown at you,
not even your loved ones who always have the
best intentions at heart for you, but just to
hear your voice. What are you saying? Yeah, I
wanna add. So over the last 10 years, that's
something I've made a point. I remember doing
my first meals on my own. So I would go out to
restaurants. I love to eat food outside. When
you are comfortable in being there with your
own company, you're good. You don't need anybody
else there. You're happy and content in who you
are. because a lot of times we feel like we need
we need we need people don't get me wrong it's
very good to have people around to support you
and love you and family or companionship yeah
that's all important but at the end of the day
it's you who you're gonna have your best relationship
with you and maybe a higher power or something
but i i completely relate when you are able to
and you should be able to spend time with yourself.
So if that's in the medium of some kind of practice
or going out to eat, that's good. Yeah. Yeah.
If there's like a local park or local forest,
just go by yourself. Like even if it's 20 minutes
or 10 minutes, it really helps. Like for lack
of a better word, I know it's used a lot, like
detox. Detox or all this information overload
all this stuff they have to always do because
there's always stuff to do, right? There's always
like you can't finish everything and don't go
do rest. You have to make time for rest now.
Yeah. To make a good point, spending time in
nature is so healing. Even in Japan, you have
doctors prescribing patients to go in the forest
to like detox. There's a Japanese term called
which translates to forest bathing so living
on Vancouver Island that's the best thing like
people there they immerse themselves in the forest
all the time the ocean right there and or like
Calgary is nice also because your mountains is
not too far away and you have huge parks like
Nose Hill Park like one of the second largest
parks in North America the more you can you can
immerse yourself in nature, the better. And I
have a segment in the book that talks about that.
Yeah. Yeah. Great way to define rejection in
a way, because it all starts internally when
we have that control over that negative self
-talk. And we find that equilibrium eventually
help us bring us in tune with our intuition and
believe in ourselves more. I feel like we change
our perspective naturally on it without having
to change the external circumstances. that surround
us. Because the external world is unpredictable.
We can't control it. No matter how good or how
talented you may be or good of a person you may
be, you may be rejected in personal or professional
life or both. And it's about finding that peace
and calm in yourself. And someone said there's
always, not sure if I can agree with the wording
of this, but I like the message that it sends.
Like there's always some kind of conflict that
people can have in their lives, but true resilience
and true equilibrium can be found where regardless
of the conflicts that you face you can still
maintain that peace and calm not because everything
is great and dandy and everything is going fine
because you know yeah that's a conflict yeah
i'll get through it i don't know how yet but
i trust myself that i will get through it sooner
or later somehow and i think that's that's really
good remaining optimistic remaining positive
like the brain functions 30 better when it's
thinking positively And you're making me think
of an example that we used to do a lot of in
martial arts. So the first key is like, stand,
right? Like you're basically learning how to
stand up straight, how to keep yourself grounded.
So if you imagine a tree, a tree is always standing,
irregardless of wind, snow, rain, right? It might
shift a little bit. But it is to remain as grounded
as it can and not be affected. So if you can
remain grounded and strong above water, that
helps us. And by keeping optimistic and keeping
positive, it's one of the biggest values actually
that I really thank my parents for. I think that's
been good. Laughable like the first 15 minutes
of waking up in the morning at all jokes and
fun To be able to tease each other kind of but
always remaining positive and at a very good
a good frequency Yeah, people are listening nowadays
to classical music Indian hymns or like Chinese
hymns or folk songs because they're all radiating
at 500 Hertz. Okay, great. How much of that can
you also, can you embody some of the other wisdom
in those practices from across the world that
say, you know, think about your mind. We're not.
We're consuming media like no tomorrow. We're
sometimes, we're not following our own paths.
We're mistrusting. That's why actually, in the
book I've tried to share a lot of wisdoms that
I've learned from like ancient texts because
I feel like that's something we can't forget
where the world is very cyclical so history repeats
itself people used to wear baggy pants back in
2000s baggy pants are coming back in now yeah
I do want to segue a little bit um I know that
throughout the book You do use the word action,
the word action a lot, and you emphasize how
taking appropriate action can help us lead a
more successful and fulfilling life, and not
just successful in terms of monetary wealth.
I just want to ask, and I know I take this back
to a lot with rejection, but I thought it would
be great to tie the theme of this podcast and
with your book. When we are faced with rejection,
and there's different types of rejection, there
can be a romantic, personal, professional, academic.
whatever it is, and we kind of touched upon this,
but what actions can you take to deal with those
rejections and eventually become successful,
whatever that may mean? And do you think the
action may look different depending on the type
of rejection you are dealing with? I know we
talked a lot about how a lot of rejection is
internal, but I do want to see how we can approach
this question now that we've addressed the important.
So not rejecting yourself internally. So yeah,
go ahead. Okay. Yeah, so I would say if it comes
to say rejection from academia, right? You apply
for med school, you got rejected. Your action
is really number one. Am I applying again next
year? What can I do to bolster that application?
Can I go elsewhere? If your rejection is in business
or monetary wise. Okay. Well, how, how can you
change that and what can you do differently the
second time around? So if you were not knowledgeable
in your investments, how can you gain the knowledge?
How can you surround yourself with the people
who have the know -how to help you get to your
end goal? If your rejection is personal, so in
a relationship and yeah, you're in a breakup
or you're feeling upset or you're sad, know that
okay that time will pass as well but what did
you learn from it what have you learned about
who you are or who the other person was and how
can you move forward with that to enhance and
better your next endeavor life is not over till
you're gone okay even that like a lot of uh indian
mythology believes in like reincarnation i'll
say maybe it's gonna keep going afterwards but
do not give up and do not Do not stay at that
low level. A lot of people can be in despair
for a long time. They can hold on to things for
too long. Whether that's material goods with
family feuds on property or that's just stalking
in your own sadness or the past. We talked about
the past, present, and future. All I know is
really today and right now. Tomorrow I have no
idea. I can plan. Oh, I can plan and plan and
plan for the next five years. I can have my calendar
schedule set, but anything can change. And actually
there's one boat in the knowledgement section.
Man proposes. So man proposes. I can propose
what I want, but God disposes. It doesn't have
to be God, whatever you want it, but know that
it's not always going to work in the same outline.
And everybody's trying to plan out their life.
like I want to be married by a certain age. I
want to have kids by a certain age, but know
that the best way I think is actually to yes,
plan and become better at yourself and what you're
doing, but know how to adapt. If you can adapt
and if you can adapt to current trends or you
can adapt to whatever comes at you, that's the
best way. That will help you a lot. It's remaining
flexible. In martial arts, we stretch and we
keep the body nimble so you can adapt and move.
That's the whole point. So if you take flexibility
in your life, knowing that, okay, you know what?
This year I got rejected from med school. That
gives me a whole year. In one whole year, I can
do so much more and come back. And if I want
to apply again, now I have this whole other breadth
of experience with me. I agree and I always emphasize
this too. Coming back to the idea of resilience,
it adds to your resilience too when you are ready
to adapt. So it's good to make plans. It's good
to have goals and stay consistent and be productive,
but sometimes just things do not happen. For
example, I wrote the AmCat three times and then
before my third testing attempt, the day before
I dislocated my kneecap. Oh my. Who would have
expected that, right? Right? It did happen. Because
that happened, I slept bad. I did not do good
on that test attempt either. And I got one point
below the threshold they were asking for at University
of Alberta. Like so many things just happened.
And I was very tempted to like sulk in it. And
you know, and I always say this in my talks as
well is like, you know, acknowledge all the emotions
that come in. We're human. I mean, it's good
to aim to be positive and happy and I think that
comes naturally when you when you give yourself
grace so when you are into yourself and find
that equilibrium and joy but sometimes there
are moments in life when you are sad and it's
okay to let yourself be sad and I was sad but
then eventually I came to that point where I
thought okay what could I do to grow from this
I still decided to go through and apply for schools
yes I didn't get in I I did not get an interview
um but I thought what can I and again this was
all gradual It wasn't easy. I'm not trying to
sugarcoat this experience, but eventually I did
try and see what I could learn and how I could
grow from this. That's how this podcast was born
too. First it was just for premeds. Now it kind
of broadens talk about rejection in general and
invite people from all walks of life and backgrounds.
But at first it was just... to help me and hopefully
people in my position similar to my position
to understand what we're supposed to do now like
we didn't get accepted like or we should we keep
applying or should we not keep applying um and
all of that but but you're right it's about taking
action and you can make plans and talk to people
but being adaptable and i find that adds to your
resilience and We've touched upon this a little
bit, but in your book you talk about fear a lot.
There's this notion that if we don't get that
fear aspect under control, then it will most
likely will control us and it can become a negative
force in our lives that won't serve us very well.
And fear is something we all as humans tend to
experience at certain points. For example, there
is fear of failure, there's fear of rejection,
there's even fear of making the wrong choice
and trying to be perfect and choosing your career
or life partner. Now, this is a bit of a loaded
question, but how do you deal with fear in your
life? And where can other people start, especially
if they already feel fearful or anxious? They're
in that mode. In other words, how to avoid letting
fear get in the way of our decision making. Yeah.
Yeah. So I'm gonna say I'm not scared of anything
anymore. You want me to walk into a burning fire?
Okay, that is scary because that is a logical
fear, right? So they're logical and illogical
fear. You want me to go and introduce myself
to somebody to do business or introduce them
or help them? I'm seeing somebody in this true
dress. Don't be fearful of things that are intuitively
who you are. If I'm driving and I see a head
-on car crash and This happened last week. I
got out of the car to make sure hold over to
stop and make sure these people had help. So
I think if you allow fear to hold you back, you're
always going to think what if, right? So the
more you hold yourself back, the more you're
doing yourself a disservice and that goes back
to you being true to yourself and living by that
quote of you are yourself's best friend. As long
as your choice is not impacting anybody negatively,
I think it's okay to pursue. And yeah, trusting
your intuition is key. That's something that
is, it's like a muscle you can work on. And we're
scared sometimes. I used to have so many fears.
I used to fear When I was younger, I would fear
speaking up a lot. Like, this is probably a good
story. When I first moved to Canada, I had to
do an aptitude test. I was coming from Africa
and I was in grade three and I had just finished
up grade three over there. But I was coming here
and because you're a new student and I grew up
in Nigeria and I went to a British school. So
we spoke English all the time. Went to a Catholic
school. We opened with the Father's Prayer every
morning. So a very like English school. And when
I moved to Toronto, we had to do an aptitude
test, right? To just kind of see where you're
at. And I remember in the test, the lady was
showing me flashcards and was like, okay, what
are these images? And it came on onto an image
of a helicopter. And because I was fearful of
stuttering, I didn't say the word. I knew...
what a helicopter was i was a nine -year -old
kid i loved helicopters but that one action actually
probably in her mind was like oh this kid doesn't
know what a helicopter is he's got a redo grade
three so i had to do grade three again i think
the fear the fear was me against myself in a
way it's being vulnerable and open that allows
you to be successful and to learn and move forward
stronger. Thank you for that. Thank you for that
story. I remember they made me do that test too.
I was so stressed. Thank you for sharing that.
It's a great example of how fear can get in the
way and being mindful and having that self -awareness
too. And I went to a conference for personal
development recently, and they they talked about
how do you tell apart between fear and intuition?
Because sometimes they're both strong inner voices,
and you don't know how to tell them apart sometimes.
And tell me if you agree with this. Yeah. But
they said fear, when it's fear anxiety, you feel
this pit in your stomach, you feel like, like,
what if this is not enough? Like, it's all out
of anxiety and self preservation. It's a voice
that's out of fear. When it's intuition, it's
more of a curiosity. It's like, oh, what if I
did this? There's no anxiety behind it. There's
no, um, like worry that this may mean you're
not enough or you start worrying about what other
people might think. There's genuine curiosity
in there. So, um, yeah, that's how I kind of
try to tell those apart. I like that. Yeah. Yeah.
I think I agree. I think when it's a fear, it's
more of a fight or flight response. And I think
that goes back to like a logical fear. We're
scared of falling from the sky. Which is valid,
right? We're scared of fires and we're scared
of loud noises often. Now in Tuition, I really
like that you say curiosity because that's exactly
it. If you're in line and you see somebody with
a really cool shirt on, you're like, hey, I really
like that shirt. I'm going to tell them a compliment.
But you're fearful, but you're also curious where
they got that shirt from. Yeah. I'm glad that
we were able to bring this up because sometimes
I could listen to your intuition, but lots of
people, especially when they're just starting
on that journey of getting to know themselves
and knowing what it is that they want, it's hard
to tell between fear. and intuition because so
often fear can be ingrained in our lives from
very early on and it can become a big part of
us so it's about separating in a way almost yourself
from that fear and seeing what that okay this
doesn't serve me this comes from a place of anxiety
let's let's move into the intuition however that
um may look like but from reading uh the book
again this one thing that i really uh liked and
that stood out to me about you is your refusal
to be defined by just one thing in your life,
right? You don't want to just be defined as a
businessman or just a singer or just a stand
-up comedian or an actor. You actively push away
labels, which I find is so refreshing because
in our society sometimes it's just like, oh,
so what do you work? What do you do? And you're
supposed to name one thing. And it always stresses
me out because I don't know what to tell them.
I do many things and I don't know what to tell
them. And then there's this fear. It's like,
oh, should I be doing this one thing? Because
everyone else is doing this. But you actively
push away labels and you focus on figuring out
what it is that you're good at, your natural
gifts, abilities, as you call them in your book,
and you work with them. You work with them and
improving yourself at it and becoming better,
better, better. And you show people that it is
possible to pursue business while also recording
music on the side, for example. And I am very
curious to know, do you think this versatile
approach to life, has it helped you become more
resilient in some way? Has it contributed to
your resilience? That's a great question. I would
say it 100 % has. I'm going to say there's no
right or wrong path. You can do just one career
choice and become skilled in that field. But
my upbringing, my background, my experiences
have shown me that You don't have to just remain
in one industry. PepsiCo doesn't just own Pepsi
as a brand. Coca -Cola doesn't just own Coca
-Cola. Companies own companies. People are a
variety of different archetypes. They're not
just one sided. You might be focused more in
some areas and that's good, but we are pretty
versatile and remaining dynamic has helped me
a lot. I'm able to understand things quicker.
I'm able to enjoy more of my work because I can
learn more about various industries. And I'm
able to challenge myself and, and enjoy it. And
the industries I pick, I love. So I love music.
So to record for freestyle rap and, and express
in a way comes back again to like the expression.
form of being able to write or being able to
speak or being able to think and to be able to
share. So, and then doing business by background,
that's what I've done. That's what I've studied.
I enjoy commerce. I feel like it only does you
a disservice if number one, it's taking you away
from your end goal. And number two, if you're
really not enjoying it, you have to like what
you do. and I've realized that more and more
as I've grown into my various careers if you
live and work a job and a life just because you're
counting down the clock well you might not make
it past the clock you need to enjoy a lot of
the segments in there I take a lot of words from
my grandmom and she's 86 every time she still
asks me she's like are you happy in what you're
doing And I think that's when you're ultimately
joyful, then nothing else matters. You have an
emotion of joy. And I was hesitant to say love
there because when you have joy, you have love.
So yeah, I would say either path is fine. You
want to go and specialize in one field, one industry.
That is good. No problem. You might though see
that a lot of people who do specialize in one
field, one industry, they end up going into other
fields afterward. Yeah. So I think as much as
you can explore and find and find what you have
interest in. That involves doing exploration
sometimes and for a long time I was limiting
myself to just medicine and I know listeners
are probably tired of hearing this because I
kind of say different ways the same thing every
episode almost but I was limited to this medicine.
bubble and in a way the rejection forced me to
a bit look outside of that and see what else
is out there. How else can I help people? How
else can I make an impact? And again, it brings
me peace because I know for now I don't want
to pursue medicine. I don't see myself in that.
Maybe in the future I will want to. Maybe. I
don't want to rule that out forever. I don't
know what will happen in the future. Maybe I'll
feel a sudden urge to pursue it again, allowing
yourself to explore, give yourself that grace
and that brings me so much joy and so much peace
and I'm able to not only live myself in that
joy and peace but I find that when you give yourself
permission to be yourself and you talk about
that with other people, other people potentially
maybe can also follow that and kind of it spreads
when you try to live that life that you stay
true to yourself, you help other people in a
way even if it's indirectly. And one thing I
like made me think of is like, okay, we idolize
a lot of people who are, you can say artists.
Okay. So artists, we idolize. Why do we idolize
artists? Because they are themselves. They are,
they are, and they're sharing it with the world.
When you are comfortable in who you are and you're
sharing that, people see it as true or your truth.
And I think that's key. Because everybody behind
them has something that they enjoy or wanted
to do. And a lot of times, they don't get to
live out those dreams because of, say, family
responsibility, children, just any circumstance
that has come your way, willingly or non -willingly.
Yeah, but that said, for example, even from the
last episode, a guest was sharing how there was
this individual, he really wanted to be an actor,
kept pursuing that, pursuing that, he... Eventually,
he realized that he could not just pursue that
as a job. So he helped his brother run a business
with cement or something. So now he's doing that.
That brings him steady income. He feels secure.
But best part is that he's able to do community
theater. So in a way, it's not always all or
nothing. Yeah, sometimes you do have to find
ways to put food on the table. That can be your
primary means of income, but that doesn't mean
there won't be any time you can't find time to
pursue your hobbies or maybe even take those
hobbies and make it into a business. And like
you said, sometimes you're just fine with having
that one job and finding satisfaction in your
family or in whatever else that you do. So find
what it is that brings you joy and just stick
to it. And there's no specific script or formula
for that. I think that's what frustrates people.
But personally, that brings me a lot of joy and
freedom because it's not all written in stone.
This is not one way to be happy or one way to
have a joy. It's all about kind of just seeing
what works for you in your circumstances, in
your situation. 100%. I couldn't agree with you
more. And it's about being content and not giving
up. So I'm happy to hear that individual who
wanted to do acting, you know, he's found a method,
a medium to satisfy that, to feed his inner soul.
And the best thing about that person is that
he actually loves his business. He loves both
of those things, but he wouldn't even know that
he loves that business if he didn't even try
it. But yeah, building on that last question,
what advice would you give to listeners about
developing resilience then based on your multifaceted
career and your travels? And again, we've kind
of covered this, Oli said it's not set in stone,
but is there anything else you want to address
here? I would just say every experience that
you have is going to help you get to where you're
going. I had a friend who shared this with me.
They would say, we're all on the same journey
and we're just walking our own paths. So I would
say, don't forget that. Don't forget that, you
know, there's other people beside you and in
the world who are probably thinking the same
things. So lean on others when you need to and
you don't do it on your own. Yeah, leaning on
your support systems. Yes. Would you be comfortable
sharing any personal, I call it rejection story,
but any time in your life where you either experienced
rejection or a time where you felt... rejected,
whether professionally, personally, or academically.
And if you are comfortable with that, please
share. Like, how did you overcome this experience?
Maybe you're still overcoming it. Maybe you're
never fully overcoming this. Yes, I had on one
of my episodes and said, and he said, do we ever
overcome anything? We just kind of move forward
and learn from it. But I wonder what your perspective
on it is. And what did you learn from that experience?
Totally. I would say I probably I had a feeling
of rejection all those facets when it comes to
career. I mean, like there's been jobs that I've
applied to like over a hundred jobs and then
you get one interview or you're working in a
team and you're applying to get promoted and
because of various reasons, it might not happen
academically. I'll share with you. I applied
to become an SLP, not next year, but in 2027.
Yes, it got rejected. Does that mean I'm not
gonna apply again? Maybe not right now and right
now I'm not prepared to to move into that career
full -time. I could still see that with this
book and this words which have been created I
can share these messages to help people. I could
see myself creating businesses focused on say
a call center for only people who stutter. So
you have literally people who might not be able
to feel so much confidence in speech being the
one behind the phones talking to people. That's
how you get out of that shell. That's beautiful.
Thank you. We are soon coming to an end of this
episode and thank you for your really refreshing
perspective and I want to say big thanks for
your time today. What would you say are the important...
takeaways for anyone tuning into today's episode.
I know we've talked about a lot of things, but
what are your main takeaways would you say? I
would say number one, don't hold yourself back
from rejection. Number two, step into fear. And
number three, make the most of every minute because
that's where you can act. Right. Thank you. And
what is the best way for listeners to connect
with you? Stuttered or you want to or have a
chat with somebody else who's experienced that
let me know I'm always open to it always open
to like sharing resources as well. Thank you
Thank you for appearing on the show today. Thank
you for sharing your stories and for talking
about your book. I highly recommend the book
So You Want To Be to anyone who's seeking to
gain clarity, seeking to gain empowerment, wants
to learn more about courage, achieving our peace,
and of course, make the best of those rejections
that may come in the future. to order the book
can also be found in the show notes. And to all
the listeners out there, I do encourage you to
reflect on the advice shared by Karen today and
remember that rejection is what we make of it.
Will you learn from it or will you let it sabotage
you? So that's a question you can answer for
yourself. Rejection is absolutely... everywhere
and it can often be celebrated for the personal
and professional growth it can help us bring.
If you'd like to support the podcast, you can
donate at Buy Me a Coffee. You can also follow
the podcast on Instagram at the underscore Rejected
Pre -Med underscore podcast for additional content.
Finally, this has been Valeria Rusnak. I'm the
host and producer of the Rejected Pre -Med podcast.
I thank you so much for tuning in and I will
see you next time.