NEW ZEALAND – Feeling disconnected from the outside world while working from home full-time, New Zealander Herman Jagpal set out to rebuild the human connection he felt was missing from his life by challenging himself to “365 days of rejection” in 2025.

Approaching strangers with requests that might normally receive a “no” every day of the year, such as asking to play football in someone’s backyard or to cook his own steak at a restaurant, he posted his efforts online.

“I thought if I did this challenge, it would force me to meet someone new every single day, and either it could be a really embarrassing moment, or it could be a really wholesome moment,” the 28-year-old told Kyodo News in a recent interview in Hamilton, New Zealand.

What began as a side project ended up garnering a million followers in nine months and led to a realisation that simply asking for what you want is “kind of like a superpower”.

“I realised that you can kind of get anything you want in life if you just ask,” said Jagpal, who added that even the nos can lead to kindness.

“There’s been a lot of times where I ask people and they’ll say no, but they’ll say, oh, maybe you should go and ask this person, he might be able to help you with this, or they might be able to help you with that.”

While approaching strangers with just simple asks was nerve-racking at first, Jagpal said he quickly realised that getting rejected was not a big deal, and most people are too focused on their own lives to judge him.

“It’s really just scary in my head, but after they say no, you’re like, oh, okay, cool. It is what it is... and you go on with your day.”

But as the year went on, he was surprised by how many strangers were willing to say yes to his requests. He found he received more yeses than nos as he became more comfortable asking and “standing in the awkwardness” while waiting for an answer, rather than quickly back-pedalling.