The Third Door: The Mindset of Success

This book is a solid yes for me. I began my PhD by scheduling Zoom meetings with several successful individuals and CEOs on LinkedIn. For many reasons, I could relate to “The Third Door,” especially Alex’s persistence. Alex’s style of writing is quite uncommon among non-fiction writers, as it is very descriptive. He vividly describes events, places, and people so well that you can visualize them with your mind’s eye. From the beginning of the book, where he mentioned staring at the silent white ceiling, I could relate as I had done that several times.

🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences

1. Life, business, and success are akin to a nightclub with three ways in. The First Door is where 99 percent of people wait, hoping to get in. The Second Door is for billionaires, celebrities, and the born privileged to slip through. Then there's the Third Door, where you must jump out of line, run down the alley, bang on the door a hundred times, crack open the window, and sneak through the kitchen—there's always a way.

2. If the probability of getting a "yes" in one trial is 1/100, persistence can increase that probability to 100/100.

3. It is better to prove something cannot be done than to exhaust an infinite number of ways to fail.

4. Borrowed credibility is crucial; successful people don't conjure credibility from nothing. They do so by associating themselves with well-known organizations and publications.

5. It’s the choices we make, far more than our abilities.

☘️ How the Book Changed Me

How my life / behavior / thoughts / ideas have changed as a result of reading the book.

1. Always ask. For anything you desire, do everything you can until you have proven it cannot be done. For context, Alex asked Tony, the former CEO of Zappos, if he could shadow him. People wondered how Alex was so fortunate, to which Tony replied, "I'd be happy to, but no one ever asks.”

2. Never oversell. If you are meeting someone for the first time, sending multiple messages can be off-putting.

3. Family is everything. The beauty of life is the relationships we forge. Those who share our burdens are our greatest allies. Burden bearer is the biblical name for these kinds of people. The world will clap for you when you give them bread and fish, but on your way to the cross, they’ll chant “crucify him”. Because when you can’t even open your eyes, all you have left is your heartbeat, your breathe and your soul’s connection to those you love.

4. Depend on your ability to learn new things and not on your current knowledge or skills. This reminds me of the hermetic principle of mentalism. The universe is like a mental projection, and you must use your thoughts to shape your reality.

✍️ My Top Quotes

1. “When I was young, I admired intelligent people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.”

2. “Every storm runs out of rain. I’d make a sign of that if I were you. Put that on your writing pad. No matter how dull and seemingly unpromising life is right now, it is going to change. It is going to be better. But you have to keep working.“

3. “Easy reading is damn hard writing, and that’s probably just as true the other way around—that is, easy writing makes for damn hard reading.“

4. Try to get out of the box. Find all the wisdom that you can find. Find Confucius; find Aristotle; look at Martin Luther King; read Cesar Chavez; read. Read and say. ”Oh, these are human beings just like me”. Okay, this may not work for me, but I think I can use one portion of this.