We have a culture of success right now where all of us are putting these perfectly coifed pictures into the world.

Everyone in the world is apparently crushing it except for you.

And it's like, "Ugh!" It doesn't work like that.

We put this pressure on this generation to be so perfect.

It's really hard to believe that you can become great.

What are you gonna do, give up? Wrong.

If everyone had the luxury of expressing their unique combinations of talents in this world, our society would be transformed overnight.

Your task is to find the combination of facts that apply to you.

Then people will beat a path to your door.

When people think of a 'dark horse,' I think most people think of people who were successful that nobody saw coming.

In our research, we actually found that dark horses are people who prioritize personal fulfillment over conventional notions of success.

Those lessons end up being viable to anybody who wants to live a more fulfilling life.

And so, we found four elements that we think, together, make up this dark horse mindset that allows anybody to get on a path to more fulfillment, regardless of your starting point, how much money you have, or what your ambitions are.

The first is knowing your what we call "micro-motives."

When we tend to think about what motivates us, we tend to look at what society tells us we all should be motivated by: universal things like competition, money, collaboration.

The truth is human beings are just more complicated than that.

There's also a whole bunch of very specific things that tend to be particular to you as an individual.

So for example, we actually talked to people who were genuinely motivated by organizing people's closets, or aligning physical objects with your hands.

Like genuinely motivated.

I can't understand that for the life of me.

It has zero motivational push, but when it comes to living a fulfilling life, those specific motives are every bit as important as the big, general ones.

I've had several people come up to me and say, "What can I do to be you?"

And the only aspect of me that's really doable is I can tell you about the academic pedigree.

The rest, you have to create what it is that you do best that layers onto the formal training that may be behind it.

I think the greatest of people that have ever been in society were never versions of someone else.

They were themselves.

You don't think about Michael Jordan, the basketball player, and say, "Oh, he was just like this other player."

You don't even say he was like this player plus that player divided by two plus this- no, he's Michael Jordan.

The second is knowing your choices.

Whereas we might optimize our choices against things that society tells us are important, dark horses are really fantastic at realizing you actually do have a lot of choice every day, if you're looking for it.

In every industry possible, Maya Angelou for poetry, Jane Goodall for science, Pitbull, Quincy Jones, Tim Ferriss, Larry King- they all couldn't have been more different on the outside.

But as I heard their stories and started to dissect how they launched their careers, I realized there was this common melody.

It's sort of like getting into a nightclub.

So there's always three ways in: There's the first door, the main entrance, where the line curves around the block, where 99% of people wait in line hoping to get in.

And then there's the second door, the VIP entrance, where the billionaires or celebrities go through.

And school has this way of making us feel like those are the only two ways in.

You're either born into it, or you wait your turn like everybody else.

What I've learned is that there's always, always 'the third door.'

How did Spielberg become the youngest director in Hollywood history without a single hit under his belt?

He was rejected from film school, so instead of giving up on his dream, he decided he would take his education into his own hands.

One day, when he was around 19 years old, he jumped onto a tour bus at Universal Studios, rides around the lot on this tour, jumps off the bus, hides in the bathroom, waits for the bus to drive away, and starts walking around the lot.

And as he's walking around, he bumps into this man named Chuck Silvers who works at Universal Television, and Spielberg tells him his dream.

For the next months, Spielberg goes back onto the lot, going into editing rooms, learning as much as possible, sneaking onto set, and soaking it all in, really creating his own education.

He's asking producers out to lunch, talking to actors and actresses, but eventually Chuck Silvers, who became his mentor, gave him one of the best pieces of advice: Stop schmoozing and go make a quality short film that you can have in your hand and show to people.

And it sort of busts that myth of 'It's not, you know, what you know, it's who you know.'

It's really also what you know or what you have to show.

So Spielberg takes the advice to heart, makes this incredible short film called "Amblin'."

And when Chuck Silvers sees it, he's so moved that a single teardrop falls on his face, and Chuck Silvers reaches for the phone and calls the Vice President of Universal Television, Sid Sheinberg, and he goes, "Sid, I have something you have to see."

Sheinberg watches the film.

The next day, says he wants to see Spielberg immediately and gives him a seven-year contract on the spot.

And that's how he became the youngest director in Hollywood history.

So the third door isn't a prescription or a recipe.

It's really a mindset, and it's a door where you jump out of line, run down the alley, bang on the door a hundred times, crack open the window, go through the kitchen.

There's always a way in, and it doesn't matter if that's how Gates sold his first piece of software or how Lady Gaga got her first record deal.

They all took the third door.