You're right, and I think that's exactly what the submitter tried to do by asking here. Still, it's probably a better question for the people turning down the work.
I would add thought, that when asking remember that the person may not be telling the truth. They may actually want to hide something if they are doing it out of some personal prejudice they don't want to admit or because they have already made up their minds about the winner but are going through a bidding process for show.
Also, they may think they are telling the truth but actually being influenced by something they don't realize. For instnace, if the poster were unusually young they may feel he is immature or lacking experience even in the face of evidence to the contrary.
One way to at least mitigate this is to solicit opinons from many people that originally turned him down.
This is the key. Don't guess. Find out.
Notice that his father didn't solve his problem until he actually found out what it was. Why don't you do the same?