For The Record, I Hate Sending Out Rejection Letters

This … "thing" I'm doing right now for my association … sorry to be vague, but I'm walking a fine line between not giving so much detail that I blow my cover and not giving enough information to the point where I won't feel I have completely vented myself … anyway, this "thing" really bothers me because it involves rejection letters.  I hate telling people who don't deserve to hear a "no," no.  I just wish I had the money to tell more of them yes.  But I don't.  And frankly, I think these people deserve an answer, even if it is in the form of a form letter.

About that last point: When I harbored real dreams of being a play-by-play guy, I used to send cassette tapes of my work to every minor league baseball team in North America.  And I would get a few, just a few, rejection letters back.  And I would be so upset at them -- "How dare they reject me!  They have no idea they're making a huge mistake!  I'll show them!"  Well, I didn't show them, turns out, but that's not the point.  While I was pissed off at the teams who rejected me, I failed to recognize that there were many more teams who didn't reply to my aircheck at all.  Now that I'm older, I recognize the complete silence of those teams -- and I regard their complete refusal to reply as even worse than the ones who sent a letter stating that they have received my tape but no, they are not looking to hire, or I'm not the right person, etc.  And I hope people, regardless of age but especially to those starting out in their career (sportscasting or no), that while you may be discouraged or furious at those who reject you, at least they took a little time out of their schedule to tell you that.  You should treat those who seemingly just throw your work in the trash with much more disdain than I initially did.  They are the ones, in fact, who did not treat you like an adult.

So I must treat these young men and women as adults and at least go through the motions of breaking bad news to them -- and, to tell the whole truth, to break the good news to the recipient.  Still feel terrible, but this is the right thing to do.