Meet Dr. Eli Joseph, a young Black lecturer who is currently teaching simultaneously at Columbia University, New York University, and UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). He is 28 years old. He delivered the welcome address this year to the class of 2023 graduates at the Columbia and NYU Schools of Professional Studies.
Despite his impressive successes, Dr. Joseph has faced rejection and failure before. Over 1,500 jobs, 30 institutions, and 75 scholarship foundations had rejected him in his lifetime. Other prestigious universities including Princeton, UPenn, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Brown University also turned him down for admission.
Dr. Joseph got a rejection letter from Columbia University back in 2012. He currently works as an associate professor in the Columbia University School of Professional Studies’ Applied Analytics course.
He was also turned down by the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University back in 2016. At the NYU School of Professional Studies, he now instructs graduate students.
Additionally, he has seen thousands of rejection notices from various firms in finance, technology, and managerial consulting. Some of these companies include JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Google, Amazon, Facebook, BCG, McKinsey, Deloitte, and Bain.
Though Dr. Joseph experienced a plethora of rejections from various firms and institutions, he has successfully overcome various personal and professional challenges – including the recent loss of his older brother last year.
Through it all, he uses his failures as fuel for motivation to succeed. He recently delivered two TEDx talks this past fall entitled “Time Is Your Biggest Competition” and “No Trace, No Case”.
Dr. Joseph earned his Doctorate in Business Administration from Felician University and was he first-ever graduate to complete the curriculum at the age of 24. He is also the author of a best-selling book entitled The Perfect Rejection Resume: A Reader’s Guide to Building a Career Through Failure.
