The expression, "When one door closes, another opens," is a widely used cliché meant to comfort someone you care about who is in distress. Receiving unwelcome news, losing a job, learning that you or a loved one has a medical issue, or having a spouse walk out tends to be devastating. Unfortunately, suggesting to someone that all will be well as their world collapses around them can sound like an empty promise. Even if something good eventually does emerge, it can take time and emotional distance to recognize the that dark cloud actually had a silver lining. Like most people, I was on the receiving end of this advice many times over the past seven decades. The funny thing is that many of my failures, disappointments, and heartbreaks actually led to something positive which got me wondering how often it had happened.Although initially hesitant to put my life under a microscope, I decided I needed to find out. So, I began writing down all the incidences I could remember when metaphorical doors suddenly closed, along with the accompanying tailspin that followed. Interestingly, nearly every time things looked bleak and apparently hopeless, an escape hatch suddenly presented itself. But, was this a one-off outcome or was there actually something to the famous cliché? The only way I knew to find out was to start digging. After reviewing the stories of a large number of famous people, I was left to conclude that Alexander Graham Bell, the individual most often credited with coining the expression, "When One Door Closes ... ," was definitely onto something.If you're at all intrigued, please join me on a journey of discovery.
