The Third Door
Every opportunity has a main line, a VIP entrance, and a way in nobody talks about.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 95%
Banayan spent a decade interviewing Bill Gates, Lady Gaga, Steven Spielberg, Maya Angelou and others, looking for what they had in common. What he found was that every one of them treated life like getting into a nightclub. There's the first door — the main entrance where 99% of people wait in line hoping the bouncer lets them in. There's the second door — the VIP entrance for billionaires and celebrities. And there's always a third door: jump out of line, run down the alley, bang on the door a hundred times, crack open a window, go through the kitchen. There's always a way in, and every single person he studied took it.
Origin
At 18, Banayan was a pre-med student who realised he was on someone else's path. Looking for a book about how people break through when nobody takes them seriously, he found none — so he decided to write it himself, funding the project by hacking The Price Is Right, winning the showcase showdown, and selling the sailboat he won for roughly $16,000. Seven years of chasing interviews revealed the pattern he named the Third Door.
Core principles
- 01Every gate has three entrances, not two.
- 02The first door is the queue; the second door is inherited status; the third door is the one you find.
- 03The third door always exists — the question is whether you look for it.
- 04Taking the third door is not manipulation; it's refusing to accept the queue as the only option.
- 05Nobody grants you the third door. You jump out of line and find it.
How to run it
- 1
Name the door
Get specific about what you're actually trying to get into — a person's calendar, an industry, a deal, a stage. Vague ambition has no door to find.
Pro tip Banayan's version was a physical note card listing every person he wanted to interview.
- 2
Recognise the first door for what it is
Identify the standard route — the application form, the general inbox, the open casting call. Understand that this is where 99% of the competition is standing.
Watch out The first door isn't wrong, it's just crowded. Don't confuse being rejected there with being unqualified.
- 3
Accept you don't have the second door
The VIP entrance runs on status you either have or don't. Stop waiting for it and stop resenting the people who use it.
- 4
Hunt for the alley
Brainstorm every unconventional entrance: a conference the target speaks at, a nonprofit they support, a mutual friend, an adjacent project you could build that makes them come to you.
Pro tip Show your list to everyone you meet — one in ten will have an idea you'd never have found alone.
- 5
Jump out of line
Take the step that scares you. Spielberg jumped off the tour bus. Banayan flew to a conference on his own dime. The move is almost always physically small and emotionally enormous.
Watch out Third door does not mean deceptive. Spielberg told Chuck Silvers the literal truth about why he was there.
- 6
Bring value once you're through
Getting in buys you a hearing, not a result. Have something real to offer — a short film, a gift card, a genuine mission.
In the wild
Rejected twice by USC film school, Steven Spielberg took the Universal Studios tram tour, jumped off halfway through, hid in a bathroom, and wandered the lot alone until he bumped into Chuck Silvers, head of the Universal television library. He told Silvers the truth — he'd jumped off the bus and dreamed of directing. They talked for an hour and Silvers wrote him a three-day pass.
→ Spielberg kept returning in a suit with a briefcase, waving at the guard, until he'd built his own film school on the lot — and eventually signed a contract making him the youngest major studio director in Hollywood history.
Broke, in student debt, and two nights before finals, Banayan saw free tickets to The Price Is Right on Facebook. Instead of studying for exams he pulled an all-nighter studying how to hack the show, then went on the next day and executed the strategy.
→ He won the showcase showdown, took home a sailboat, sold it for about $16,000, and used the money to fund seven years of interviews.
Common mistakes
Waiting in the first-door line and calling the rejection a verdict
Applying twice and being turned down tells you the queue is crowded, not that you lack the talent. Spielberg was rejected by film school twice before finding the alley.
Confusing the third door with manipulation
The third door works because you tell the truth once you're in the room. Deception gets you in and then gets you thrown out.
Is it for you?
Best for
Young or unknown people with a big goal and no credentials, connections, or capital.
Not ideal for
People operating inside rigid regulated processes (licensing, legal admissions) where the queue genuinely is the only lawful route.
From the transcript
“there's always always the third door and it's the entrance where you jump out of line run down the alley bang on the door 100…”
“it doesn't matter if that's how lady gaga got a first record deal how spielberg you know got his directing contract they all took the…”
From the episode
Alex Banayan: Unlocking The Third Door To Your Success
Alex Banayan