Jacqueline ElliottLeadership Strategist | CEO, Mother, Wife, Legacy-Builder

I locked my employee in the closet 😳

18 Nov 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:59

A short YouTube monologue by Jacqueline Elliott recounting an anecdote where she "jammed" a closet door while an employee named Sean believed he was trapped and sat waiting rather than trying to escape. The story is used as a metaphor: people often behave like Sean, accepting perceived barriers without attempting to overcome them. The speaker invites the audience to reflect on times they assumed a goal or path was blocked and passively waited instead of acting.

Chapters

I told him, sean, I just jammed this door. I jammed this door, and you can't get out. He sat down for about an hour, just sitting there, waiting for me to unjam the door. He believed that he was stuck in there. He didn't even try. He was stuck in that closet. How many times have you been a prisoner in your mind of something that you think is actually going on and you don't even try anymore? How many. How many times have you set a goal? How many times have you started something and because you tried something and you tripped or something got in your way, you stopped trying? Sean didn't try to open that door. We were all laughing at him like, what the heck? He's not even trying. He's a bigger guy than me. He could have pushed the door open. He didn't even try. She's laughing because she remembers this. So right here I put. Is your door really jammed? Think about a time that this has happened to you where something got in your way and the door wasn't really jammed, and you just stood there and waited for the door to open on its own.