A brief trip to Trader Joe’s religiously brings with it not only good food and a terrific shopping experience, but I’ve found that the trip from my house to TJ’s is just long enough for me to sit still long enough to absorb some of this life.
Part of that absorption is just sitting in my car listening to the Terry Gross show on public radio.
About two months ago on a TJ’s trip, I was listening to her show and Chaz Palminteri was being interviewed. He’s a successful actor (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001590/) who’s been in a whole mess of films.
He was sharing about his experiences in getting to where he’s gotten in Hollywood and as an actor and he said the following:
“Success isn’t knocking on the right door at the right time. It’s knocking on all the doors all the time”.
How completely appropriate for me to be listening in that moment.
For I was in a place of wondering where my next client was going to come from; where I was going to raise more money for a fundraising project; where and when I was going to be successful. I kept asking myself “Who is the ‘best’ person for me to speak with”? “There must be the ‘ideal’ person for me to meet”.
I had it, as many of us do, that success primarily depends on that ONE door upon which we knock that’s the “right”, “best”, or “ideal” door. This actor’s words changed my perspective forever.
Now I just knock on all the doors. I have no idea what’s behind any of them. Behind some I find nothing. Behind others I find a treasure chest. I no longer judge the door before I knock.
So what doors are awaiting you in your business and your life? What doors are you judging today as “not the right door”? How much business, money, love or enjoyment are you giving up because you’re WAITING for the right door to appear?
Go start knocking.
- Coach Preston
http://www.breakyoursilence.com/
