I spent this weekend at a technology conference.  I learned many things, ate too much good food and generally had a good time.   I heard about the “Corridor Principle” and it’s stuck with me ever since. 

“The act of getting into business allows people to see new corridors of business that they would not have seen if they had not gone into business.” Start somewhere, anywhere, he advises students; the important thing is to start. “That learning process allows you to see opportunities you could not see before,”  (1) UPDATE: In an attempt to correctly cite these quotations. 

This is a powerful idea, that you need to start or trying something in order to really see what is available.  How many of us have ideas about a product or service?  How many of us want to succeed?  How many of us want to get our lives under control be it finances, relationships or weight?  How many of us look for the quick fix that comes to us rather than us stepping out and seeing where the first step leads us?  How many of us let the fear of failure keep us from even trying? 

Or is it our ego, in Failing Forward, John Maxwell says that ego can use the fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of (you fill in the blank) to keep us from the success that we could have.  He also talks about those who are successful fail a lot.  It is from those failures that we learn how to succeed.

Remember:  Failure is only failure when we fail to learn from it.

1. Ehrenfeld, Tom.  “Where Great Ideas for New Businesses Come From : B-SCHOOL BOHEMIANS”  Inc. Magazine  Sept 1993.