I see aspects of my own career in this post... I chose to start a publishing company 15+ years ago because I got sick of being rejected by publishers.

While that was a great choice for my career, as I've gotten older I've recognized that I swapped in ambition for learning to be resilient in the face of totally normal rejection. The arrangement I made with myself was "I'd rather work 60hrs/wk building my own company than spend 5hrs/wk tolerating the discomfort of having my work rejected." It's a pretty massive workaround to avoid discomfort.

Again, the decision served me very, very well... but it makes me wonder: what kind of soccer player could you have been if you'd been willing to learn the rules? What kind of writer might I have been if I'd learned to tolerate rejection?