Since becoming an entrepreneur just 5 years ago, I’ve become keenly aware of the troublesome prominence of a culture of overnight success in our world. Yet I have never met anyone who is an overnight success. And even those in the spotlight whom we may consider to be an overnight successes, there is a much broader story for how they got there. The story of “overnight” success is never the whole story.
In most cases, it was through years of work, trial, error, small success, set backs and eventually greater success. It wasn’t overnight.
Take actress Jenna Fischer for example, from the NBC sit com The Office.
The culture of overnight success wants you to know “…that after a string of appearances on successful shows such as Six Feet Under and Cold Case, Ms. Fischer landed the part of Pam Beesley in The Office and, due to the show’s wildly popular success, she became an overnight sensation which has now landed her an Emmy nomination, money, fame and opened up the opportunities of her choosing.” Happily ever after. End of story.
In an effort to tell stories of incredible success, media sources tells the stories of what is considered someone’s monumental success, through boiled down, succinct packages that work for their publications.
I recently read the follow article excerpt she wrote for TV Guide that tells a much greater part of her story.
Here is how I got “discovered.” I had been living in L.A. for about two years when a friend wrote a TV script and wanted to do a live stage version as a way of attracting TV producers. He
Jenna Fischer of The Office was not an overnight success.
asked me to play a small role. It meant lots of rehearsal for very little stage time and no pay. Along the way I questioned why I had agreed to do it, but it was very funny and he was a friend, so I agreed. After our third performance, his manager approached me and asked if I had representation. I said no. She offered to represent me, saying she thought I had a real future in television comedy. Naomi is still my manager today. A month later, I was doing a very strange play — a musical adaptation of the movie Nosferatu — at a small theater in Los Angeles. I was doing it because I loved the commedia dell’arte style of the show, and because I loved the people involved. I worked all day as a temp doing mind-numbing data entry for a medical company, and then went to rehearsals for five hours a night, often getting home past midnight. One night an agent came to see the play and left his card at the box office asking to meet me. He became my first agent.
Now that sounds easy, right? Well, that was after two years of working as a temp, doing every acting gig I could find for free, borrowing money to buy a new engine for my car, and wearing a pair of shoes with a hole in them because I couldn’t afford anything else. Did I mention my living-room curtain was made from a torn bedsheet? It was another three years before I got my first speaking part on a TV show. That show was Spin City. (I played a waitress in a scene where the girl playing Charlie Sheen’s crazy date threw bread at me.)
Every year I did a little more than the year before. For my first five years, I probably earned between $100 and $2,000 a year from acting. Year 6 brought me some of my biggest success — and I only made $8,000 from acting. But I put a lot more money into my career than that. Headshots are expensive — the photo session and getting prints can run anywhere from $500 to $800. Classes range from $150 to $500 a month. It costs $1,200 to join SAG once you are eligible. And apartments are crazy expensive — $700 to $1,000 for a crappy apartment that you share with at least one roommate. It’s no wonder my living-room curtain was a bedsheet.
Why call out this culture of overnight success? Because for entrepreneurs it’s important to understand that with your eye on your vision, every single step you take toward that vision is toward success.
If you are working in a small dark office in your basement, embrace it now. It’s just for now. If you are investing in classes to improve your knowledge and add new skills, love spending that money. It will come back to you. And if you’ve just had a bigger year of sales than you could ever imagine, savor it. It’s only the beginning.
