The Third Door by Alex Banayan

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The Third Door: The Wild Quest to Uncover How the World’s Most Successful People Launched their Careers by Alex Banayan brings us on his journey to securing interviews with successful people and asking them for the holy grail on how to be successful.

He overcame much roundabout and rejections to eventually secure those interviews with the celebrities. However, when he was interviewing those people, they shared with him that there is in fact no secrets to becoming successful. It is the choices made and not the abilities that determine how far we go in life. 

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The analogy that he came up with for the third door is like getting into a nightclub. The first door is where 99% of the people will stand behind and patiently queue up to get in. The second door is the VIP door where people who are born with a silver spoon in the mouth, VIP and celebrities with connections will be able to get in. The third door is where you yourself will have to create that window of opportunity for yourself to enter the door. In order to do so, one has to be think out of the box and be “thick- skinned” enough to make the first move.

The author has shown us readers time and time again how he does that, facing many rejections along the way but he never gave up. Instead, he took each rejection as a lesson and went back to the drawing board, speaking with his mentor, Elliott Bisnow to try approaching his subjects for interview request from another angle.

I liked the story of he hacked The Price is Right game show and how he went on to share with each and everyone that he met when he was on his mission of interviewing successful people to find their holy grail. This is exactly what Dr Greg Reid mentioned in one of his wealth hacks in his book, Wealth Made Easy about having a why instead of a simply who and what when you are introducing yourself. In this way, people are able to remember you by your story and have an emotional connection with you. 

Overall, I recommend this book as a superb read suitable for anyone who is stuck in a rut who feels they are unable to achieve anything. Just know that Alex Banayan was in the same position years ago when he was a student at USC, who feels lost in the direction of life and wants to know how successful people launch their careers. The answers he got from the people he met in his quest taught him invaluable lessons in life, such as being persistent, working smart, forming connections and being inclusive to the female gender. His original list consisted of interviewing male subjects, neglecting to consider female subjects till an encounter with a female subject’s story which caused him to include female subjects in his list of interviewees. 

Have you read this book already? If not, go pick it today and share with our fellow readers what you think!