that is standing in front of a door. he wants to get in and on to the other side but is too scared to try getting pass the doorman. because of this he waits his whole life complaining about getting through until he gets old and it is too late.
the point of the story is to show that sitting and doing nothing about something important to you can seem like a tragedy because you won't know what lies on the other side until you do something about it. "if you don't try nothing will change". sometimes breaking a rule is the only way to create change that could be beneficial 