Rejection, failure and success in academia

Purpose Success is very visible in academia, yet quite rare. Rejection and failure are ubiquitous, yet largely invisible. Against the background of this discrepancy, this essay reflects on the roles of rejection, failure and success in academia. Design/methodology/approach The essay draws on our personal reflections, which are informed by numerous experiences of rejection and failure alongside occasional successes. Findings We argue that rejections are an essential part of academic life, that they are inevitable, and that they happen to everyone. We moreover discuss how we can respond to rejections and how we can learn from them. Finally, we reflect more generally on what failure and success mean in academia. In this context, we highlight the dangers of instrumentalism and neglecting life beyond work, and we seek to promote more inclusive notions of success that go beyond a focus on “top-ranked” publications and better reflect the broad range of valuable contributions academics can make to society. Originality/value This essay seeks to contribute to a more open and explicit discussion about rejection, failure and success in the academic community. In doing so, we hope that the paper can help academics in general, and emerging researchers in particular, make sense of and navigate the various pressures and contradictions that pervade academic careers in the 21st century.