Book Ponder

• The Third Door by Alex Banayan
• Published: June 5, 2018
• Pages: 320
• Read: 10/21/2022 – 10/30/2022
• Rating: 5/5 Stars

The Lessons Learned series is different than standard book reviews.  There are hundreds of great book reviews for The Third Door, and I would be wasting your time creating another one.  Instead, I strive to give you the lessons I was able to extract from the book to improve my life and yours.

The Third Door by Alex Banayan is an excellent story about using unconventional methods and taking significant risks to achieve your goals. When every door feels closed, you use the third door that no one else knows about.

Choose To Be A Leader or Follower

When you watch motivational videos to get inspired, becoming a leader is the only way to feel like your life is worth something. To create something new, to achieve greatness, or whatever other motivational quotes creators use to inspire you. While some of it may be true, being a leader isn’t the only path to living a fulfilling life. Many people are followers and live lives of greatness as long as they follow the right people. The important part is deciding which one you want to be.

“If I gave you the map Lewis and Clark made, it would be pretty easy to get from here to the West Coast. That’s why everybody remembers the names Lewis and Clark, and nobody remembers who read their map and took the trip the second time. “If you don’t think you can deal with this amount of uncertainty and failure,” he continued, “then wait for Lewis and Clark to deliver the map, and you can be one of those people who does a good job following their lead. But if you want to be one of those people who do what these innovators did, be prepared, like they did, to fail and get frostbite and have people not make it. If you’re not prepared for that stuff, that’s okay: don’t do it. There is plenty of room in the world for other people. But if you do want to do it—if you want to go off and do massive things—be prepared for them to take way longer than you thought, cost way more than you expected, and be full of failures that are painful, embarrassing, and frustrating.”

Alex Banayan

If the struggle to become great doesn’t resonate with you, then follow someone who has already done it. Usually, they are the ones who become great leaders and need great followers by their side to continue to achieve greatness. In the employment universe, this means working for companies that provide a service you believe in, bosses who have the same ambitions and goals as you, or organizations that have a culture you resonate with.

The choice is yours; go all in, whatever you decide.

The Power of Urgency

The small changes ordinary people make to become more productive seem like a joke compared to the extreme things truly ambitious people do to find more time. They don’t let any moments of opportunity to get better go to waste. It may seem intense from the outside, but it offers a new perspective on how much time we truly have when we pause to scrutinize it. It takes urgency to get the ball rolling on positive changes, stop putting things off for tomorrow, eliminate the time-wasting activities you are in denial about, and make the changes needed to accomplish your goals. If this all seems like too much work, then you’re better off not doing it and being content with your life. The only downside to this is that the likelihood of having regret for not doing more at the end of your life is high. This may seem discourteous, and I know everyone’s circumstances may be different, and some challenges may be more significant than others. All I’m saying is that whatever you do, give it your best effort.

Focus on the Work

Everyone is looking for the big secret to success; they want to find the perfect plan, system, template, or guide to help them achieve it. They do everything except the most important one: doing the work. The ideal system grows alongside you as you begin to do the work. Initially, everything may feel clunky and unprofessional. Still, once you put those reps in, you slowly learn what strategies work for you, what tools help you work smarter, and a workflow that enables you to be your most productive self. Many people never start because they are always getting ready to start.

“You want to know the secret to changing the world? Stop trying to change it. Do great work and let your work change the world.”

Alex Banayan

To change the world, you must first offer it something of value.

Final Thoughts

The Third Door is a great story about Alex Banayan’s journey of persistence and success. It inspired me to never give up on my goals, and when every door feels closed to you, keep trying and trying. That third door is hidden somewhere; you just have to continue looking.

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