Jerry Seinfeld Gives 2 Smart Pieces Of Career Advice
Its star, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, has cemented his career as one of the most successful standups ever, and recently finished the fourth season of his current show, "Comedian In Cars Getting Coffee."
A few days ago, Seinfeld took to Reddit for an "Ask Me Anything" session where he fielded fans' questions. Along the way, he offered some valuable career advice for young professionals.
A Reddit user asked Seinfeld what advice he would give to the upstart version of himself, and Seinfeld replied, "I would say the advice I would give myself, or any young person, would be, "Keep your head up in failure, and your head down in success."
Seinfeld followed up that answer by saying that the worst advice you could give to a new comedian, or any young professional, is that "you have to do more to promote yourself. That's the worst advice. The best advice is to do your work, and you won't have to worry about anything else."
He also mentioned that one of the lowest points in his career came before he had even made a name for himself. He writes:
At one point, in the early 80s, I got a part on a sitcom called "Benson." And I was on the show for three episodes, and then I got fired. And I thought that would be the only break I was ever going to get. It was just a youthful lack of perspective. But at the time, I thought that was it. But it really ended up making me really get into being a much better standup comedian so that I wouldn't be dependent on other people. It ended up being a good thing. The best things in my life have been the bad things that taught me stuff.
Seinfeld uses the rest of the Q&A session to share some behind-the-scenes details of his shows, like his favorite scene to shoot on "Seinfeld" and how scared Ricky Gervais was as Seinfeld's passenger in "Comedians In Cars." He even alludes to the possibility of "Seinfeld" streaming on Netflix in the near future.