I am a visual artist and with that comes rejection, a lot of rejection.  Not only from museum curators but from society at large.  It really bites to be rejected and can send one screaming for the nearest bed to crawl into.  For some reason creative endeavor is seen by some as play time and not really serious.  Friends have popped into my studio unannounced convinced I was merely lazying about ready for lunch or conversation.  Every day I face the fear of “what am I going to do today and what if it sucks?”  Many of us live with a fear of failure and rejection.  The opinion of others can weigh heavily  not only with creative endeavor but in every walk of life. Those with unique vision can be toppled by rejection or ridicule.  Humans are a creative lot but many of us hide our light under a bushel.  We fear failure.  We may have brilliant ideas but retreat when we are ridiculed by others.  We may hear”someone has already done that, you are too old to do that, that does not make sense and the list goes on.  Yes, someone may have done it but it was not you.  Others have a vested interest in keeping us small.  If they keep us small, they too can stay small and it can be mighty comfortable sitting still doing nothing.  When we do nothing and stay in our place there is no risk and we think we are safe.The world needs our ideas, our inventions and our creations.  We cheat ourselves and the universe when we play small.