‘Until 100 people say no’: 5-year-old boy selling chips outside a store leaves Indian Railways official with a powerful life lesson

Life lessons often come from the most unexpected places and moments. Sometimes, a simple interaction can leave behind a thought that stays with us long after it ends. Ananth Rupanagudi, Chief Project Manager at Indian Railways, who describes himself as a “Passionate Railwayman” in his bio, recently shared one such encounter on X. The story involved a five-year-old boy selling packets of chips outside a store in Seattle for a Scout charity fund. What the child said about rejection left Rupanagudi deeply impressed.

5-year-old boy selling chips outside Costco in Seattle

According to Ananth Rupanagudi’s X post, a man named Dhruv had gone to a store in Seattle when he noticed a young boy standing outside the store. The boy, who appeared to be barely five years old, was holding packets of chips and a small board. The board said the packets were being sold for $20 each for a Scout Charity Fund. As people walked past, the child approached them one by one and asked whether they would like to buy a packet.

Some people purchased the chips, while many others politely declined. Yet the boy did not appear discouraged by the repeated rejection. Instead, he simply smiled, moved on to the next person and asked again.

His answer about rejection

Dhruv eventually stopped and bought a packet from the boy. After thanking him, the child smiled happily. Curious about how long the young fundraiser planned to continue, Dhruv asked him how many packets he still had to sell and how long he would remain there. The boy’s response was simple: he would stay “until 100 people say no.” The answer surprised Dhruv, according to Rupanagudi’s account. But the explanation from the teacher standing beside the child made the moment even more meaningful.

Teacher explains why hearing ‘no’ matters

The teacher told Dhruv that the important thing was not necessarily how many packets the boy managed to sell. Instead, she explained that at such a young age, he should learn how to hear “no”, accept rejection and still have the confidence to approach the next person. For Rupanagudi, the encounter highlighted a lesson that often gets overlooked while raising children.

Parents and educators naturally encourage children to study hard, come first, win competitions, get selected and achieve more. But according to the message shared in his post, learning how to deal with failure can be equally important.

‘Success makes us happy, but learning to handle failure makes us strong’

Rupanagudi’s post went beyond the child’s fundraising effort and reflected on the role rejection plays in everyday life. Children may fail exams, miss opportunities, face rejection during interviews, experience broken relationships or watch their dreams take longer than expected to materialise. The lesson, as highlighted in the post, is to experience these setbacks without allowing them to destroy confidence.

A rejection does not mean a person has lost their worth. Life will not always respond with a “yes”, and learning to continue after hearing “no” can help build resilience.

The boy was ‘collecting noes’

Rupanagudi described the five-year-old as doing much more than simply selling packets of chips outside Costco. The child was practising courage, collecting “noes”, learning perseverance and preparing himself for life.

The story also prompted a different way of thinking about how adults question children about achievement. Instead of asking only whether they won, Rupanagudi suggested asking whether they tried again after failing. The message of the encounter was ultimately about raising children who are not prepared only for success, but are also unafraid of failure.

Rupanagudi ended his post by saluting the teacher, the boy’s parents and the five-year-old himself, describing his experience as a big lesson for the world: sometimes, “a hundred noes teach more than one yes.”