Seize Your Leadership Day: Advice From Miki
by Miki Saxon
I’ve always thought of life as a corridor with dozens of doors opening, each one representing an opportunity.
You may open one or pass them by—it’s your choice.
Each time you do open one and enter that door closes forever and you move down a new corridor full of doors.
The door you entered is sealed because whatever lay behind it changed you, so you can’t go backwards, only forward.
Some people to through life opening as few doors as possible, changing as little as possible and staying as safe as possible.
Others launch themselves through the most interesting doors with gusto, taking advantage of whatever opportunities are concealed and then on to the next door.
In honor of all those who are, or lean to, the latter description I dedicate these two Rules. They are especially apropos today.
Watch for big problems—they disguise big opportunities.
Welcome the unexpected! Opportunities rarely come in neat, predictable packages.
You can’t open every door and you don’t have to stay long if you don’t like what you find, but if you pass straight through never opening any doors you’ll stay in pristine condition and you don’t really want to arrive at the end as untouched as you were when you started—do you?
Your comments—priceless
April 11th, 2009 at 9:50 am
This is right on!
The question I have, and the mistakes I have made involve investing too heavily into “new” doors.
How does one go about opening as many doors as possible with as little cost as possible?
The faster and less costly you get through as many doors as possible, the greater the chance of success, correct?
April 11th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Hi Dale, getting in and out too quickly isn’t always an optimum approach. Part of the opportunity comes from the experience gained whether you succeed or move on.
Since you can never “back out” to the same original path you move to a new corridor with a new set of doors based on the experience gained.
There is a cost only if you see no value in the experience gained, but the cumulative experience of many doors is what sustains you and gives you the tools, knowledge and even wisdom to achieve more at the next one.
Think of the doors like football plays. No one on the team knows which play will score, so they invest everything they have in each one.
“Investing heavily” is what you do throughout life, but the payback is never guaranteed. Parents invest heavily in their children; companies invest in new technology; scientists invest in new breakthroughs—none can be guaranteed.
What I have done, and my advice, is to invest heavily in every door through I’ve passed, and trusted my gut to know when the play is over. Some I should have left more quickly, but, on the other hand, those were the ones in which I learned the most.
Although I admit that I didn’t always feel that way at the time:)