How To Take "The Third Door" To Get Anything You Want In Life

One of my favorite books ever is called The Third Door, by author Alex Banayan .

I can't remember how I first discovered it, but it's one of those books I've read where its lesson's just stuck with me.

Essentially, this is the premise of the entire book—

There are three doors in life:

There’s one door to get into the nightclub, that everyone enters through.

There’s a second door to get into the nightclub, that is for the VIP and celebrities.

Then, there’s a third door, that nobody tries. Find that door, and take it.

The only problem is, there's usually a reason nobody tries to enter the third door.

Oftentimes it's extremely hard, if not impossible, to identify.

In the book, Alex tells his story about how he was able to take the 3rd door to meet seemingly impossible to reach, such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Lady Gaga, and Larry King.

Alex outlines 4 ways to enter the invisible third door:

• Work harder than everyone else to find a way in
• Find the back/hidden entrance
• Knock on the door 100 times until someone answers
• Use creativity to identify an entrance no one else sees’s (my personal favorite)

I took the 3rd door into UCLA.

In high school, I had a 3.2 GPA, and my SAT scores were average, at best (far off from the 4.4 GPA UCLA generally admits).

I knew I had no shot of getting in with my grades, applying into a highly competitive major like Business (the major I was first considering).

So I looked for other majors, and eventually, I discovered UCLA had a design program. Right up my alley.

And rather than valuing grades, I learned that this program valued ones artistic and creative capabilities (something I excelled at over school).

I figured it was my best shot.

So, I applied with a portfolio of 10 artworks I scrapped together, and to my surprise, I got in!

Many of my peers in high school who spent their lives holding straight As, all wondered how a scrappy kid like me get in, and not them.

It's because I found the third door.

The third door, got me into UCLA.

But, be careful... because the third door, doesn't always work.

The third door, is still risky (it's still way better than trying to enter through door 1 or 2...but risker in the sense that you might pour a ton of time into taking it, for nothing to result).

In business, I've taken the third door to get in contact with people in unique ways.

Some successfully, some, not so successfully.

A story about a recent unsuccessful attempt:

About 4 months ago, I shipped a massive 4' x 5' artwork of Steve Jobs to Jimmy Donaldson (Mr. Beast), whom I got in contact with via cold emailing a ton of his agents until reaching someone.

In his videos and podcasts, Jimmy often talks about how big of a Steve Jobs fan he is, so I thought he'd be the perfect recipient for this unique artwork of mine.

I didn't know what (if anything) it would lead to, but I figured I'd take the shot, and let the universe work its magic.

I spent over $1,000 professionally crating and shipping it from California all the way to his HQ in North Carolina.

It arrived safely, and I've been told that it is now hanging in his HQ (which I admit, is still pretty cool if true).

It was successful in the sense that I accomplished my goal: get a painting to Mr. Beast. But unsuccessful, in that it didn't lead to too much other than that.

Alls this to say, the third door is risky, and it won't always lead to anything.

Or, it might only lead to something many years later. Sometimes, you need to be patient to enter the third door.

The third door, is not always immediate, and has a funny way of coming around later in life for your efforts.

Moral of the story:

Even if you think something, or someone is impossibly reachable, there is always a third door.

Nothing is impossible.

It might take a lot more work to enter, but your odds are going to be much higher by entering through the third door.

Whether it's in life or business:

Get creative— identify the third door that no one else sees, and take it.

If you made it here, thanks for reading! I hope you got something out of it. If you did, be sure to?follow me, drop a like, comment, and?subscribe?to my LinkedIn newsletter, "The Creative Entrepreneur," where I dive deep into my lessons, journey, findings, and mindset as a creative person navigating the world of entrepreneurship, building profitable businesses fueled by passion.

See you in the next one!

-Casey