The Third Door by Alex Banayan: 7 lessons to achieve greater results.

"There's the First Door: the main entrance, where 99% of people wait in line, hoping to get in. The Second Door is the VIP entrance, where the billionaires and celebrities slip through. The Third Door is the entrance where you have to jump out of line, run down the ally, bang on the door a hundred times, crack open the window and sneak through kitchen - there is always a way in," -Alex Banayan-

The Third Door by Alex Banayan is about the journey of a 19-years old student who quitted medical school to pursue his dreams. Alex was a freshman at the USC Medical School when he realized that this wasn't something he wanted to do. Despite the fear to disappointed his parents and fail out of the prestigious medical school, Alex took this journey to find the answers to the questions of how successful people went through the "third door" without waiting in line or getting access to the VIP entrance.

He had a mission to interview prominent successful people and write a book as the motivation guide for others like me and Alex who are in searching for their own mission.

After years of hustling to get his interviews, crouching in the bathroom in the conference hall to listen to Tim Ferriss' speech, chasing Larry King through the local grocery store, building momentum to get an interview with Bill Gates and helping Lady Gaga to go "against expectations," Alex wrote "The Third Door" book which made him Business Insider's Most Powerful People Under 30 and Forbes' 30 Under 30 List. 

This is a fascinating story that showcases that the rejection does not define your goals, an obstacle makes you stronger, and the success comes not in one day. While offering many business life lessons from the world-class mentors, The Third Door opens a new perspective on success for anyone who is facing uncertainty, waiting for a valid door of entrance or looking for new opportunities. 

Lesson #1 Build your momentum - Success is about momentum. It is defined by your ability to make the right move in the right place with the right person. Alex's first big rejection was by Bill Gate’s Chief of Staff who refused to arrange an interview with him due to lack of enough momentum. While it was disappointing and couldn't crash his entire mission, Alex took it as a challenge. First, he thought of finding his dream mentor, who would guide him through this journey, help to build strong networking, and expand his self-confidence in his mission. Next, he decided to validate his book idea. He drafted a 140-page book proposal, did his legwork, created a list of people whom he wanted to interview, put in action the cold email strategy, reached out to the publishers he wanted to make a deal, and built a valuable network pipeline. As a result, he found a mentor who would not only lead Alex during his mission but also would become a friend for life. He also got a publishing deal with a top publisher for this book and built a connection pipeline that would help him to get interviews with notable people such as Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Jessica Alba, Larry King, Lady Gaga, Pitbull and on. 

Lesson #2 Find your dream mentor - Finding a dream mentor is a two-way street. Not only you choose someone to guide you, inspire you, and help you on your success journey, but also that person should be willing to put his time and efforts with you. While Googling “Bill Clinton Richard Branson cruise ship, Alex came across the name Elliott Bisnow, a young entrepreneur who has started his first venture at 20 years old, out of his college dorm room and brought all together leaders and influencers such as Bill Clinton, Russell Simons, Sean Parker, Mark Cuban, Ted Turner, and John Legend under one roof, only being twenty-five years old. Elliott taught Alex how to create the right leads and claw his way out of difficult situations. He also made him embrace risks and adventures as part of business midset.  

Right from the get-go, Elliott offered Alex 5 "ground rules" to use for today and the rest of his life.

• Rule #1: Never use a phone in a meeting. Always carry a pen a pocket. The more digital the world gets, the more impressive it's to use a pen. 
• Rule #2: Act as you belong. Walk into a room like you've been there before. Don't gawk over celebrities. Be cool. Be calm, and never asked someone for a picture. If you want to be treated as a peer, take like one. Fans ask for pictures. Peers shake hands.
• Rule #3: Mistery makes history. If you're doing something cool, don't post pictures of it on Facebook. People guessing what you're up to.
• Rule #4: Never break trust. What goes in does not come out. If you act like a vault, people will treat you like a vault. It will take years to build your reputation, but seconds to ruin it.
• Rule #5: Adventures only happen to the adventures

Lesson #3 Short-term pleasures VS long term gain - Not many successful people talk about the long list of their sacrifices on their way to success. We see someone shining on the stage and think what a lucky one. We never ask ourselves what was the price to this success. Success comes with many sacrifices and challenges. It's not just about being lucky and/or hard-working. It's also about the readiness to make sacrifices at the stake of your dreams. Alex first heard about Qi Lu at the business conference. Qi Lu was the President of Online Services at Microsoft who went from a rural village in China with no water or electricity to the President of Online Services at Microsoft in 20 years. What was his secret of success? One word- a lot of sacrifices!

After failing to pursue his dream of becoming a shipbuilder due to his weight requirements, Qi Lu decided that education would be his way to success. He got into a local university to study Computer Science. At the university, he realized he needed to sacrify his sleeping time to find extra time writing research papers and reading books. Qi set up his sleeping system slowing cutting the hours of sleep up to four hours. The sleeping system finally was paid off. His papers helped him to get a Carnegie Mellon scholarship and moved to the USA. At the end of his scholarship, he was already the shining stare, when a friend-of-a-friend who worked for Yahoo, proposed Qi to build an e-commerce platform for Yahoo. After three months of coding day and night, Qi created what we now know as Yahoo Shopping. As he would explain Alex later, the secret of his success was the ability to sacrify his short-term pleasure for a long-term gain. His sacrifices and consistency in work ethics would make Qi the Executive Vice President of Yahoo just in eight years. 

Lesson #4 Brand yourself with the right storyline - Everyone has a story to share. Everyone has a story to be impressed with. But not everyone knows which story to use for affecting people who matter. Right off the bat, Alex was confident that his mission to get interviews with prominent people and then write a book, was a powerful storyline to get in touch with people on his list. He was writing cold emails with the same messaging over and over until one day his mentor guided him to change his storyline. "Your mission is nice, but this story tells me more about who you're than anything else you could say." What was the story Elliott was talking about?

As in his dorm room thinking about the ways how to carry all interviews, Alex realized he would need money to fund his mission. Two nights before his finals, Alex decided to hack a game The Price Is Right. This was a game show where the audience member would guess a prize, and if they guessed closet to the actual price without going over, they'd win. Using his instincts and a bright mind, Alex was able to guess the closest to the retail price of a boat and win it. It was an expensive boat in the total value of $31,188. Later, he sold this boat to fund his mission. 

Lesson #5 The inefficiency of persistence - You can find dozens of quotes on how persistence can lead to success. Many leaders and mentors tell you to push until you get a result. As a salesperson, you are taught to try to contact a lead until you get a positive result. One thing Alex would learn from his journey is that the presence is good, but it should not cross the line and become annoying. 

Warren Buffet was at the top of Alex's list to do interviews. After searching the best sample of cold email, Alex sent his first email to Warren Buffet's office. "Alex- All aspects of my life have been covered many times over. Too much on my plate to grant all the interview requested." This was Buffet's response to his first letter infused with knowledge and fact about Buffet. After being denied, Alex printed out and carefully read ten quotes on persistence. Learning that persistence is a core to success, he sat down to write his second letter to Buffet. "Mr. Buffet got your second letter. However, his first response remains. I'm sorry he can't help you.." Boom! Another rejection. After his third rejection, Alex bought an AskWarrenBufferr.com and offered it to Warren Buffet as a gift to use for teaching students all around the world. Yet another rejection. This wasn’t enough. By a friend's suggestion, he sent flowers to the Assistant to Warren Buffet. Yet another rejection. The final point in this saga was when Alex asked Bill Gates' Chief of Staff to help with this interview and got a response from him - "Please no more calls to Warren's office."

This wasn't any more resistance. This was more of an obsession. 

Lesson #6 Building a networking pipeline - Networking is a powerhouse nowadays to do business and move forward with your ideas. One good referral can open dozens of new doors in front of you. A good network allows you not only to connect with people, that really matter to you, but also share valuable ideas, and learn new skills.

Solid networking pipeline is a chain of contacts where each part has a role to play. For Alex, the biggest contact was Elliott that would help him yo open dozens of doors. Someone who built his success using solid networking, Elliott was well-aware of the value of good connection. He was the master of using the right connections in his pipeline. He told Alex to build a solid networking pipeline and get other balls in the air. Thinking differently and building a pipeline was paid off. Alex got a deal with a well-known publishing agent, was able to get the interviews with the people on his list - Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Jessica Alba, Larry King, Lady Gaga and Pitbull, and have a solid network to rely on in the future.

Lesson #7 Redefine success - Success is an individual perception. For someone people the success is to have a multibillion-dollar company; for others having a good house or raising to the top of the company, and on. There is no ultimate definition of success. For Steve Wozniak success was to be happy and do things that can have a positive impact on the world. “Society tells you that success is getting the most powerful position possible,” Steve Wozniak said. “But I asked myself: Is that what would make me happiest?” As one of the founders of Apple, Woz had an opportunity to get a higher corporate position, make more millions, and be a successful mogul like Steve Jobs. But he did not do what the society and business world expected him to do. he redefined the idea of success, choosing to do things that make him happy.