Lessons - How Finding a Mentor Changed Everything | Alex Banayan - Forbes 30 Under 30

In this lessons episode, explore how unconventional thinking transforms ambition into achievement through Steven Spielberg's rise as Hollywood's youngest director, discover how persistence and creativity open doors others cannot, understand why mentorship and real connection often defines success, and uncover how shifting beliefs about possibility turn potential into lasting impact. Tell a story of of anyone and and walk me through with their third door experience was like to put some context around it. Something really out there that ended up with that could have been Bill Gates, lady, with anyone, anyone, just so people can get an idea of how they got. I'll tell you one I'll tell you one of my favorites and it actually goes back to what we were just talking about a few minutes ago with regards to the job interviews and whatnot. This is the story of how Steven Spielberg became the youngest director in Hollywood history. The youngest major studio director. So Spielberg since he's a kid always wanted to be a director. So when he was a teenager and he was finishing high school, of course, he applied to film school and naturally he got rejected. But you know, no worries. He's a persistent guy. He applied a second time. Got rejected again. Now that's where most people would sort of back up and say maybe I should find a different career. Spielberg instead decided to take his education into his own hands. And one day he goes to Universal Studios Theme Park in Los Angeles and I'm sure many people know but for those who don't, this theme park in Los Angeles has a ride that takes you. It's called the, you know, the tram ride. It takes you on a little tram bus on the back lot of the Universal Studios film studio and it shows you the sound stages where they make all the movies. So on day when Spielberg was about 19, he goes on this tram ride and it's driving around the studio a lot and when the bus stops for a moment, he jumps off the bus hides behind the corner and the bus keeps going. And Spielberg ends up just wandering around the lot by himself. And about an hour later, he bumps into this older gentleman who sees this sort of pimply face 19 year old and says, what are you doing here? And Spielberg's, you know, admitted the truth. He said, look, I'm a kid. I know I'm not supposed to be here but I always wanted to be a director. I jumped off the tram. I, you know, I'm so sorry and the guy ends up talking to this young kid and sees his passion and at the end of this hour long talk says, how would you like to come back onto the lot for the next few days? Spielberg goes, that would be great. So this man introduces himself his name is Chuck Silvers and he's the head of the Universal Television Library, the archives. So he writes Spielberg three day pass and Spielberg goes back the first day and the second day the third day but on the fourth day, he comes dressed in a suit carrying his father's briefcase and walks right up to the security entrance, waves his hand in the air and goes, hey Scotty and the guard waves back Spielberg walks right at it. And now he's doing this day after day after day. He's getting kicked out by security. He's sneaking into sound stages, going into editing booths, asking the actors and directors out to lunch and he's essentially creating his own film school from scratch. And over time, the older gentleman Chuck Silvers becomes a mentor to Spielberg. After, you know, about a few months of this, Chuck Silvers sits Spielberg down and says, listen, can I need to give you some hard advice? And he essentially gives him the advice that there has to be a time in your life where you stop schmoozing and you create something of value and in order to show people what you can do. So he told Spielberg, don't come back onto the line until you have a short film of quality that you're proud of to show me. Spielberg took that hard advice to heart and he ended up spending months filming and editing a short film called Amblin. It's about 22 minutes long and when it's finally ready, he goes back to Chuck Silvers showing the film and it was so good that when it was done, a single tear came down Chuck Silvers' face. And Chuck Silvers reaches for the phone immediately and calls the vice president of Universal Television, his name is Sid Scheinberg. And Chuck Silvers goes, said, I have something you gotta see. And the vice president's like, look, there's a lot of things people tell me I have to see. Chuck Silvers says, no, if you don't watch this tonight, someone else will. And the vice president thinks says, you think it's that damn important? Chuck Silvers goes, it's that damn important. Sure enough, the vice president watches that night. A 19 year old Spielberg gets a call the next morning saying he needs to be in the vice president's office immediately. Spielberg, you know, runs out of class, rushes over in his car, shows it to the office, on the desk is a contract making the youngest director in all the history. A lot, that's a good story. That's a really good, that's a good damn example of not even thinking outside the box, just pretending the box doesn't even exist when it comes to architecting your own career and your own life. Yeah. And you know, wow, there's, first of all, the story isn't, we just have to acknowledge stories and possible without tremendous talent. No, if he's a bad director, you know, if he's a bad director, if he's bad at his art form, this doesn't work. But it makes you wonder, I'm pretty confident he wasn't the only person with talent in the whole city of Los Angeles. You know, you look at singers, there's a reason some make it even though there's a lot of people with voices that sort of blow you away. You hear them. You look at Spielberg's all the time. And they're like, how are they not famous? All the time. Yeah. Yeah. And it makes you look at that Spielberg story and say like, what it, you know, once you like can enter the game, paying the price of talent and skill and hard work, what makes the difference? And when I look at the story, yes, he had the courage to jump off that bus. Yes, he had the honesty to tell the truth when he met Chuck Silver's, you know, all, yes, he had, you know, all these different things. But to me, it was his ability to make that relationship with Chuck Silver's at Insight Man. Because without Chuck Silver, Spielberg never would have had the three-day pass. Never would have gotten the good advice that he needed to hear. He also never would have had someone put the reputation on the line to get into the vice president's office. And every single third door store, I don't care if it was Warren Buffett's early career in finance. You know, whatever story you look at, you know, Jane Goodall with science, every single one of these stories. There was always an inside person, an inside man, an inside woman, someone who was within the world you want to break into who believed in you enough that they were willing to put the reputation on the line to help you get in. And you can have all the ingredients, but it doesn't work without that inside person every single time. So is that, is that the takeaway? Is it to find the mentor? Is that the first step in the third door playbook? I wouldn't say it was the first step because if you actually look at, you know, the Spielberg story, you know, this guy's making home movies for years. He's studying his favorite films. You know, if you sort of just showed up to, you know, Chuck Silver's office and said, Oh, I just decided last week, I really want to get into like, Scott, if someone comes up to you and says, Oh, I said, this one, I want to podcast. Do you have any advice? You'd be like, uh, sure, but you wouldn't really be like, well, this, this young woman, this young man is my protégé, right? No, no, you wouldn't. You wouldn't. You don't know. Right. But if you're walking around town and you had a grocery store bump into someone who's like, Scott, I have been dreaming of being a podcaster for years. I've actually listened every episode of your show, like, I hope I'm not fan-blowing right now, but I'm trying to let you know that episode you had on this person really that follow a question. Yes, blew me away. And I've been reading every book on podcasting. Do you have any recommendations of how to, how to break in? You'd be like, yeah, you want to just log between my car and yeah, here's my email if you have any more questions. You know, you might not take them under your wing immediately, but you'd be like, yeah, here's your email address. You seem like you got a good head on your shoulders. So the inside man is critical, but it's a piece to the larger puzzle. So if somebody wants to think, this all comes down to thinking differently. I think a lot has to do with thinking differently as to what's possible and what is not possible. So what would be your advice for somebody to get themselves in the right mindset so that they start approaching life with this mentality that they can do things outside the norm? I guess I'm trying to get somebody on the right. What I'm trying to pull out of you is how do I get somebody listening to this show to start looking at life differently? What I've learned after 10 years of studying success is that you can give someone all the best tools and knowledge in the world and their life can still feel stuck, but if you change what someone believes is possible, they'll never be the same. And you see it all the time, you can go to Harvard where they have all the resources and all the information and there are kids who've come out of there who still have no idea what to do and want to just sit on a couch. And then you can go to some places where there's no resources and you see in someone's eyes they're willing to do whatever it takes and they believe it's possible and they actually make it possible. Of course it's easier if you have the willingness at Harvard, but what I am saying though is you can have the tools and the resources and it still doesn't work. But as soon as you change where you believe is possible and again it doesn't make it easy and it doesn't make it automatic and it doesn't make it guaranteed. But when you can change where you believe is possible, nothing is the same. Another, oh go ahead, sorry, I finished finish your point seven. I want to touch on that, but go ahead I mean to cut you off. Yeah well I would just see the biggest thing about you know how you change what someone believes is possible. It's really about what you what you're surrounded with. And yes there's like you know the cliche, you know you're the average of the five people you spend your most time with. Yes of course. I guarantee you you take any anyone and you take them and surround them with like five motivated, successful kind people it just rubs off on them eventually. It might take a week, it might take a year you're going to change. But it's also the things you consume. I remember when I was 19 starting off on my journey to the third door you know I wasn't hanging out with Bill Gates, but I was reading you know before work week. I was you know listening to Talks by Gary Vaynerchuk. You know I was just I was reading about the Godwell and I was just sort of changing my world and again I wasn't doing it on purpose, but in hindsight I was seeing that my world was changing because I was changing what I was bringing in. And people listen to this podcast I'm sure are ready on that path if they're really listening to your show.