A young attorney/sports agent is attending a seminar in Las Vegas. He is bored with the presentations and he is bored and burned out in his personal and professional life. He has lost his passion for his work and life in general. During a break in the conference, he wonders through a Vegas hotel and comes upon a door. Bored as he was with the conference, he decides to go through the unmarked door. The first door leads him to another door and another and another. Seven unmarked doors in all. Seven opportunities to turn around and not risk going through the next unmarked door. He knows he probably should not be going through these unmarked doors. On seven different occasions, he makes the decision to open the next door, each time having no idea what awaits him on the other side. After entering the seventh door, he meets someone he would never have met had he not gone through all seven doors. As the result of that serendipitous meeting, he is given the unique opportunity to take advantage of a life changing experience that reinvigorates and rejuvenates his career and his life. Seven unmarked doors… Seven choices… Seven risks to an incredibly positive life changing experience…
How many unmarked or unknown doors have you knocked on, opened and walked through recently? Doors that might be considered low, medium or even high risk? Doors that could turn out to be “wrong doors?” The correct answer for virtually every one of us is “Not Nearly Enough!”
Our lives are a series of choices regarding the doors we approach, the doors we open or ask to have opened, and how we respond to whatever is on the other side. Each of us has literally hundreds of opportunities each day to unlock and open unmarked and uncharted doors. The number of available doors each day is almost unlimited. The only way to increase the number of right doors through which you pass is to increase the total number of doors through which you pass. Doors are like baseball. Three hits out of every 10 and you are a star in the big leagues! If all or most of the doors you enter end up being good to great, you are not opening enough doors and taking enough risk. You are missing tremendous opportunities that could and would richly enhance your life, your career and all that you dream to be or do.
Wrong doors have had an extremely important and positive impact on my life. Wrong doors led me
- From a coin telephone spot welder on the graveyard shift – to a burning desire to learn and excel that is alive and still burning within me to this day
- From a neighborhood paper route – to a 55 mile paper route (twice every day) that paid for all my tuition and living expenses while in college
- From being devastated by a talented but irresponsible and undependable guitar teacher – to playing and teaching classical and flamenco guitar for a living for several years
- From taking a risk and unknowingly calling the wrong organization and wrong person – to meeting the people who supported and helped position me to become a hospital CEO at age 30
- From a miserable cross country trip in a U-Haul truck – to my Inspirational Vehicle, one of the great joys of my life
Even if a “wrong door” results in a negative or bad experience, be sure to take the time to learn from it. By far, our most beneficial life lessons occur when and after we have taken a wrong door. Be sure your “to do list” and your highest priorities include opening and exploring the other side of many unmarked doors.
Take the exciting and exhilarating journey with the young attorney/sports agent referred to above in the book Cirque du Soleil: The Spark – Igniting the Creative Fire that Lives within Us All. Read the book. Apply the concepts and success principles. It would be impossible to carefully study this book and not discover many opportunities for improvement in your life, in your career, and in your success.
Bottom line… using prudent judgment, there is no risk in opening wrong doors. Only thousands of fantastic opportunities in which to experiment, experience, learn, grow and succeed!
Wrong doors have no doubt had a very positive impact in your life. Leave a comment regarding the remarkable results in your life after having opened and entered a “wrong door.” With your permission, I may use your story in an upcoming article, presentation or book.
Do it now and for as long as you live. Open more doors!!!
