The Third Door Review

What does it mean to be relentless? We all have it in our lexicon, and we throw the word around everywhere. The gravity of the word often goes unrealized. I was the same until I read The Third Door by Alex Banayan.

I devoured the book in 2 days, and I don’t say that to sound arrogant but to explain how engaging the book is. However, that is not what I want to talk about in this review; I believe it is better to talk about what this book teaches you. 

Here’s a quick background: Alex Banayan is a premed student at USC who is sick of studying and makes it his mission to learn how the world’s most successful people began their careers. The way he wanted to do it: Interviews. His targets: Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, etc. Calling it preposterous wouldn’t be sufficient to describe this quest. Yet he managed to do most of what he aspired to and learned more than any degree could teach him. He takes us with him on the journey, and him being rejected hurts more than us being rejected. 

But he kept going, relentlessly, dropping cold email after cold email, visiting meeting after meeting. He feeds us hidden stories of many successful people along the way, and these stories, among his learnings, are what make this book truly inspiring and a valuable asset to all bookshelves. Be it Qi time or the Spielberg Game, each story holds us by the collar and demands reflections of ourselves. Every moment these guys spent awake, they not only grabbed opportunities with both hands, but also made opportunities every second. 

There’s always one thing that can teach you more than any degree, book, or interview can teach you, and that is interacting with people. People have so many stories that have so many morals, and this book, as far as I’m concerned, is a compilation of beautiful stories told through the hardships of a man’s journey on a stupendously difficult mission. 

This book is a living proof of one of the fundamental principles we have heard time and again: