This reminds me of getting rejected for the first job I applied for in DC.  It was the first interview I ever had with a web development agency for a fulltime position.  Getting the rejection email devastated me. I was ready to accept that I was such a failure, that I would never be able to become a professional web developer.

To cheer me up my then-girlfriend dragged me to go watch a hockey game and eat some chili with some of her friends. There I met a friend of a friend who two days later I was interviewing with. That night I got a job offer.

If I had taken that first job, I probably would have stopped contributing to WordPress and would never have helped run the DC WordPress Meetup.  I never would have moved to AddThis which led to my current gig. So much would be different.

Moral of the story:  Failure is a gift, even if it doesn’t seem like it at the time.