• Elliot Grainge advised Northeastern University grads to embrace rejection in his commencement speech.
• The CEO of Atlantic Records said he set up his company, 10K Projects, after repeatedly hearing "no."
• Grainge was appointed to run the Warner Music division in 2024.

The CEO of Atlantic Music Group had some advice for new graduates of Boston's Northeastern University: don't give up when you're told "no."

Elliot Grainge, the son of Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge, gave a commencement speech at the university on Sunday.

He told the graduates he'd learned the power of resilience when he faced rejection.

"I'm here to tell you the two greatest things people have said to me: 'That's impossible' and 'no,'" Grainge said.

He graduated from Northeastern in 2016. During his time at the university, he started two businesses he was "certain would be massive successes." One was a promotion company, the other was a live music series.

"These companies made me a total of negative $3,500," Grainge said.

He didn't that the failures to heart and remained determined to make it in the music industry after graduation.

After leaving Northeastern Grainge said he tried to convince music execs that the artists he was listening to on SoundCloud were going to be big.

After "hearing 'no' — again and again" he said he started his own company called 10K Projects.

"I heard these things so many times, eventually I thought: screw it. I'll try and raise some money, and try to sign one or two of these artists, and launch my own label," Grainge said.

"That company, 10K Projects, was born from hearing 'no' — again and again. I bet on myself. I bet on the artists I believed in. And I was right, not always, but I was right more often than I was wrong."

10K Projects has since signed artists including Trippie Redd, 6ix9ine, Aitch, and Ice Spice.

"Looking back, if just one of those individuals had said yes, or even offered me a job, I probably wouldn't be standing here today in front of you guys," Grainge said. "It was hearing 'no' that drove me to follow my gut and build something of my own."

Grainge encouraged the graduates to embrace their failures because each of his own had taught him a valuable lesson.

"Success isn't one massive leap," he said. "It's little wins, a thousand setbacks, some detours, and eventually, a door opens."

Grainge was appointed CEO of Atlantic Music Group at Warner Music in 2024, overseeing Atlantic Records and 300 Elektra Entertainment.

Warner is one of the world's largest music groups, along with Universal and Sony.

Commenters on a Northeastern subreddit noted that Grainge's father is a member of the university's board of trustees. Elliot Grainge married Sofia Richie, the daughter of singer Lionel Richie, in 2023.

• I had a crush on my coworker and decided to tell him when my contract was up.
• He told me he was flattered but that he had a girlfriend.
• I wonder if the timing was off, but I'm glad I put myself out there.

I remember noticing him early on at my former job. He was funny and had a sunny smile, but he also struck me as confident and competent. A wave of excitement filled my heart every time he was around me, and I felt like a teenager with her first crush — even though I was in my mid-20s.

Maybe you don't like spoilers, but I do, so I will tell the truth right now. This is not a love story. This is a story of rejection after declaring my feelings to my former coworker when my contract ended.

I waited until my last day of work to finally confess my feelings for him, but I'm not sure it was the best decision.

I finally asked my coworker out

I didn't take the decision to tell him lightly. I debated with myself for a long time if I should tell him while we still worked together.

On one hand, I thought it would be heartbreaking for me if he politely declined and I had to see him every day. On the other hand, if he accepted my invitations and we began going out together, an awkward situation would arise. Even if we were working in different departments, being in a small company where we met every day surely didn't help my dilemma.

So, ultimately, I decided to come clean when my contract was finally up. When my six months ran out, I said goodbye to all my coworkers and devised a plan. I decided to finally confess my feelings as he stepped out of the office. Unfortunately, he didn't leave the office alone, so my plan was foiled. But I couldn't keep my romantic feelings to myself anymore.

When I got home, I wrote him a message, finally revealing that I had a crush on him and wanted to tell him in person, but there hadn't been an appropriate occasion. A few minutes afterward, I added that we could have a coffee together one day — if he wanted to.

My hands were sweating as I stared at the three dreaded bubbles showing he was typing. A long text message appeared; he was incredibly kind, even when rejecting me.

He said that he knows how difficult it is to declare your feelings, so he thanked me. Still, he was already seeing another girl.

Being rejected is painful. It can easily affect our self-worth and make us feel like failures. Even though I expected this rejection, I wasn't prepared for that intrusive emptiness that left me feeling lost and thinking that no one would ever want me.

Telling my friend what happened made things slightly more tolerable, but I needed a way to cleanse this intoxicating mixture of emotions from my body and mind.

Summer meant a lot of exercise classes in parks and on the beach. I decided to trade emotional pain for physical strain, and I went to a total-body class in July's heat. Moving my body and sweating felt amazing. It made me temporarily forget this situation.

I'm ultimately proud of myself

One question kept nagging me: Was it even worth telling him the truth?

But now that some months have passed, I don't have any regrets about how things went. Sometimes, I think if I had told him earlier, things could have gone differently, but anguishing over how something could have been is never sensible.

Regardless of the timing, I am proud of stepping out of my comfort zone and declaring my feelings. As an introvert, this can be incredibly challenging.

Even if it was painful at the moment, being rejected was better than remaining in doubt about his feelings.

Rejection is like a period at the end of a sentence. It can feel like an abrupt close, but endings often turn into new beginnings.