Jerry Seinfeld started his comedy career by taking gigs at clubs that paid him the equivalent of a couple cheeseburgers. The scrappy 23-year-old from Brooklyn had his back against the wall as he carved a path in the New York City entertainment scene – any boos or rejections would hurt his chances of long-term success.
Seinfeld was determined to make it out alive, but his motivation wasn’t cash, women, or even the approval of bigwigs like George Carlin or David Letterman. If that was the case, he wouldn’t have created the most successful television sitcom of all time. So what separated him from the comedians who fell off the wagon?
The answer is in a brown accordion folder.
Jerry Seinfeld has been writing jokes by hand on yellow notebook paper every single day since 1975. To put that in perspective, that’s more than 15 thousand days of writing. Between hundreds of standup acts, the Seinfeld sitcom, and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, it’s safe to assume he’s produced upwards of 10 million words.
And you thought comedians just walked onstage, made a few wisecracks, and cashed out.
Seinfeld doesn’t hesitate to say that writing comedy isn’t fun or easy. In fact, it’s torture. But the perverse pleasure he gets from pushing his creative limits is exactly why he’s the most prolific comedian of all time:
“Your blessing in life is when you find the torture you’re comfortable with…You master that, and you’ve mastered life.”
We have this cultural myth that life magically unfolds like some Tony Robbins-esque fairytale after we find work we like. But the truth is that the work never gets easier. You just get better at tolerating the struggle.
A lot of people want “it”: the big paycheck, the beach body, the 4.0 GPA. They’re comfortable with the idea of those things, but they’re uncomfortable with the process and discipline that precedes them.
It’s important to note, however, that tormenting ourselves with arbitrary work just for the sake of having something to do misses the point entirely. Instead, we should pursue the work where we wake up and think, this is going to kick my ass, but I’m ok with it.
It’s Hemingway being okay with rewriting the ending to “A Farewell to Arms” 47 times.
It’s Adele being okay with spending two years reproducing her album.
It’s Kobe Bryant being okay with not leaving the gym until he makes 800 shots.
This makes you think: can you finish the workouts, the projects, the [insert your work here] without throwing in the towel early? I hope so, because the future belongs to the people who can keep plugging away.
Even when it feels like torture.
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