Why is the world’s most commercially successful comedian so successful? Jerry Seinfeld is worth almost $1Bn and still rakes in $40M+ from his TV show, 22 years after it ended.
He was once asked “What does $1Bn get you?”
He answered, “3 minutes. Being Jerry Seinfeld allows me to be bad for 3 minutes before they boo me off stage for the next guy. Most comedians get less than 30 seconds”.
I’m a big Seinfeld fan so it was a lot of fun to disect some of his bits, trying to understand why he spends up to 2 years on each joke, and why he is so obsessive about the amount of syllables and words in each sentence.
Being the best at anything takes a certain level of obsession. It’s not normal. It takes effort and resiliency. Others think you’re wasting your time. But you’re doing what you love. So you survive by surrounding yourself with other weirdos who are just as imbalanced as you are.
“The road less traveled is less traveled for a reason“. Jerry Seinfeld
Jeremy Waite 