Listen to this week's episode below, recorded by yours truly.
A couple of weeks ago I was scheduled to meet some people in a building I wasn’t crazy familiar with in L.A. As I approached the main entrance I saw a padlock and chainlink around the gate. I was about 5 feet from the entrance when I decided to turn around and find another opening. I walked to the door 20 feet due west from the gate and tried the handle. Locked. I went to the east end of the building. Another door. Locked. I was confuzzled. Did I get the time wrong? No, we had confirmed it. Was this the right address? Absolutely, we had confirmed it. There wasn't a soul around so it wasn’t as if I could ask if my posse was inside.
So then I went back to the first entrance - the bloody gate. This time I actually went up to it, took a closer look and pulled the latch. I had nothing to lose. Wouldn’t you know! The gate was open that whole time. I had perceived it to be closed from afar because I saw the chain and lock, but a closer look revealed that what I thought was an obstruction was not so. The chain and lock were only wrapped around one side of the gate and not the entirety. I walked into my meeting right on time.
This situation got me thinking about those seemingly locked doors of opportunity we come across every day:
- I won’t talk to that cute intimidating-looking guy/girl. They look full of themselves and might reject me.
- I’m not going to apply to that job though it would be a dream. There’s too much competition.
- But I called that sales prospect three times already and haven’t heard back.
- I’m not going to apply for that loan. My credit sucks.
We don’t even approach those figurative doors because we think we already know the outcome. What a surprise when we find out that all we needed to do was walk up to the door and pull the friggin’ latch. Let’s surprise ourselves next time we see something we want. We might find that many doors are open much wider than we could have ever imagined.
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