Stages: Refusal of the Call and Meeting with the mentor

Refusal of the call

Is the threshold of fear and an understandable reaction to hesitation or refusal of the Call for some period of time.
The first step is avoidance which is natural and happens when the hero tries to avoid the adventure. Then the hero makes excuses and this refusal may lead to tragedy. After that the hero may have to decide between two calls; is never good to refuse a call unless is a temptation to evil or a summon to disaster.
Some heroes can be willing and accept or even sought out the adventure. Therefore heroes who overcome the fear and commit can still be tested by powerful figures who question the hero's worthiness and capabilities. They are known as threshold guardians.
Also the hero can be tested by a secret door or symbols of human curiosity, the powerful drive to know all the hidden things, all the secrets.

Meeting with the Mentor

A mentor prepares the hero to face the unknown world. It can also protect, guide, teach, test, train and provide magical gifts. Sometimes the mentor can misdirect or have conflicts with the hero.

To start a new journey can be scary or troublesome to the hero. First it can make excuses and refuse the call. Also if it decides to refuse one or more calls it can bring calamities to him, unless he refused an evil temptation that could have diverge he from the adventure.
If the hero is still insecure a mentor can guide him and help him understand the new world. Also he can be helpful along the adventure even if sometimes he can get in an argument with the hero.

When Volger mentioned the secret door (in the refusal of the call chapter), it made me wonder of how much this concept is used in books and movies. Besides the beauty and the best there are many others, for example the door to Narnia was in a misterious room that had only an old wardrove. If Susie did not have gone to that room while playing "hide and seek", the children would not have been able to find that new world which would become their kingdom.
A most recent one is the book I am reading right now "Coraline". Coraline discovers her "other mother and father" behind a door that was supposed to lead to a brick wall, but when the crazy old man tells her that the rats warn her not to approach the door; curiousity takes over her and she opens it reaching the world behind the door were her adventure starts.

Questions

1. Have you ever refuse some opportunity that if you had accepted it would have been for the best?
2. Is the mentor always present in a story?
3. Have you ever open a secret door or done something out of curiosity?