[sei]

[the genius filter]

Third Door | Steven Spielberg

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Most people wait for permission.

They wait for the right degree, the right introduction, the right moment. But waiting rarely opens doors. The people who break through often do something different: they stop waiting and start creating their own access.

Steven Spielberg understood this before he was anyone. As a teenager obsessed with film, he didn’t have a clear path into Hollywood. So at 17, he put on his father’s suit, carried a briefcase with nothing but a sandwich inside, and walked past the guard at Universal Studios. He found an empty office, put his name on the door, and started showing up like he belonged.

The details of the story are somewhere between myth and legend, but the essence is true: Spielberg didn’t wait for permission. He created his own access.

His career began not with permission, but with persistence. Spielberg’s story captures the mindset that success often comes through a side entrance, not the front gate.

This issue explores that mindset through Alex Banayan’s Third Door concept, and how it can be applied to your own ambitions.

[the spark]

The Third Door

Alex Banayan noticed something strange while studying how people broke into their fields. The stories never followed the same script, but they shared the same pattern. There were always three ways in.

The first door was the main entrance, where most people waited in line, hoping to be chosen. The second door was the VIP entrance, reserved for those with connections or privilege.

And then there was the third door—the unmarked side entrance that required creativity, nerve, and persistence.

Banayan argues that every success story, from business to art, is built on finding that third door. It's never obvious, and it's never handed over. It has to be created.

Spielberg’s teenage stunt at Universal Studios is a perfect example. He didn’t have credentials or connections. What he had was the willingness to act like he belonged until he did. That was his third door.

The method is simple to describe, but hard to live by. It means refusing to wait in line, refusing to envy the VIPs, and instead searching for the hidden entrance no one else is looking for.

There's always another way in.

[the science]
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Make Your Own Luck

In 2024, Stanford professor Tina Seelig studied how entrepreneurs create the conditions that others mistook for luck. She aimed to demonstrate that what appears to be chance is often the result of deliberate action.

Seelig explained that fortune is passive, but luck is built. Entrepreneurs construct a kind of sail to catch the winds of luck. That sail is made of small, deliberate risks: starting a conversation with a stranger, tackling a hard problem, or sharing an honest thought. Each act increases the odds of unexpected openings, from new connections to fresh ideas.

Her work proves Spielberg’s bold move at Universal Studios didn’t randomly pay off. It was a risk that created access where none should have existed; it was self-made luck. Seelig’s research shows why that worked: consistent, intentional risks generate the very breaks that others call luck.

Don't wait to find an opportunity. Make one.

[the takeaways]

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1) Stop Waiting in Line​
​Action creates openings that patience never will. The first shift is simple: stop waiting to be chosen and start moving as if you already belong.

2) Stack Small Risks​
​Spielberg’s bold step into Universal was one version, but the same principle applies to smaller acts. Each little risk (an email, a question, a pitch) raises the odds of an unexpected opportunity.

3) Search For The Hidden Path​
​Banayan’s Third Door is the unmarked entrance that others overlook. Every field has one. The task is to keep looking where most people never bother.

4) Act Before You Feel Ready
​Spielberg walked into Hollywood long before he had a résumé. His courage preceded his competence. Waiting for perfect preparation only delays the very experience that builds it.

5) Keep Building Your Own Doors​
​The Third Door isn't a one-time trick but a mindset. Each deliberate risk adds another opening, another chance to catch the wind of luck. Over time, persistence and action compound into a system of self-made opportunity.