NextierBOOK REVIEW: The Third Door (The wild quest to uncover how the world’s most successful people launched their careers) by Alex Banayan. The crown publishing. 2018. Length: 318 pages.
By Onyinye Ngene
In the book “The Third Door, “Alex Banayan interviews the world’s most successful people to find out how they succeed in their careers. This adventure was born out of his lack of enthusiasm to concentrate and prepare for his premed exams, thereby questioning if it really what he wanted for himself as he didn’t derive happiness doing it. At the beginning of the book, the author was convinced he was not the only one faced with this challenge. He decided to go on a wild quest to uncover how the world’s most successful people launched their careers. The author hoped it would serve as a guideline for people faced with the same problem.
The quest kicked off when he decided to choose “The Price is Right” over studying for his premed final exams, even when he knew that his worst-case scenarios outweighed his best-case scenarios. Fortunately, from hacking “The Price is Right,” he funded his quest to interview Bill Gates, Tony Hsieh, Steve Wozniak, Lady Gaga and Tim Ferris, Warren Buffett, Larry King, and many others.
The success of the interviews led to him drawing the third door analogy. Success in life, business, or almost any field you choose, is like getting into a nightclub. There are always three doors: The first door is the main entrance, where almost everyone queues, waiting and hoping to get in. The second door is the VIP door, where the celebrities and billionaires slip straight through. And then there’s the third door. Most people don’t even know it exists, but it does. You have to step out of line, run around the back of the club, bang on the door, maybe sneak through a kitchen. You’ll need a little nerve and a little initiative, but there’s always a way.
Here are my takeaways from the Third Door
Find an inside man; Networking is one of the best ways of finding our inside man; Steve Spielberg’s story is a perfect example; he decided to board a tour bus at Universal Studios and ride around the lot. Before the tour ended, he ran off and spent the day by himself, walking the Universal lot instead. He eventually bumped into Chuck Silvers – who worked for Universal TV – and managed to get a three-day pass into Universal. From then on, he used this opportunity to show off his passion and talents – which ultimately secured him a future in filmmaking.
Borrowed credibility; Tim Ferriss was more than a college graduate; he was an event producer at Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs. Associating himself with well-known organizations made it more natural and easier to connect with high-profile people in the industry. In essence, build your credibility by associating yourself with reputable organizations. You can do this through internships, competitions, outreach programs, and voluntary work.
You can’t out-amazon amazon; As Alex went on interviews after interviews, he realized that it was impossible to copy and paste their success strategies. Their unique circumstances and strengths bound everyone. The Walmart versus Amazon case served as a perfect example. Larry King also supported the above assertion when he said, “there is no secret, there is no trick in being yourself.”
Mentorship and peers; Alex went through his entire quest alongside his mentors and peers. Without them, it would not have made his journey possible. Hacking Warren Buffett’s show wouldn’t have been possible without his friends. The mentorship of Elliott Bisnow led him halfway to his success.
All the above is essential, but nothing will matter if you don’t make the right choices. Dreaming of what you want is a start, while getting up and starting is the most crucial step. Self-made progress doesn’t come in one day, but instead over time due to lots of small decisions and choices along the way. We can either give up and continue waiting in line for whatever you want to happen to come along, or you can jump out of the line and take that third door.
Onyinye Ngene is a Research Assistant at Nextier Advisory. She holds a B. Arts in History and International Studies from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.
