Jerry Seinfeld on Mastery: The Joy of Hard Work in Business and Life
Jerry Seinfeld works hard.
Even after the incredible success of Seinfeld, he still does standup comedy, has done 11 seasons of his show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and is and promoting his new film about the (fake) history of Pop Tarts.
“You've made a buck or two," an interviewer asked recently (Seinfeld is almost a billionaire).
“Why do you still work so hard?”
How you'd expect a billionaire to act…
I loved the answer:
“The only thing in life that's really worth having is good skill. Good skill is the greatest possession. Pursue mastery. That will fulfill your life. You will feel good. I know a lot of rich people; they don't feel good— you think they should, and would— they don't. They're miserable. So I work, because in standup comedy, if you don't do it a lot, you stink."
This concept of mastery was on my mind this morning as I watched a course on how to judiciously use Artificial Intelligence in small business.
There's so much you can outsource to AI, and it's evolving faster than we can even keep up.
It's freaking me out a little– and not just for the usual reasons.
Aside from the unease of occasionally feeling like we're in a sci-fi movie, and knowing that the “use it or lose it” principle applies to our neural pathways (I don't want to forget how to write or think, and I don't want us to get dumb as a society)…
My unease about AI is because there's just something about the joy of hard work, especially when it's in service of developing mastery.
I don't want anyone to miss out on that, including myself.
When your brain is working on a problem, expanding your abilities, or having to learn how to craft words: It's hard, but it's fun.
As writer Susan Sontag said, “Love words, agonize over sentences. And pay attention to the world.” How delicious. (And how much more satisfying than popping a writing prompt into ChatGPT).
One of my core values as a business coach is that it can (and should) be fun. I talk about it a lot.
When I say that building a business can be fun, though, I don't mean it isn't hard.
Business means facing a stream of problems.
Business means making your brain work hard.
But there's joy in the hard parts, too.
It's fun to solve a problem and gain confidence that you'll know what to do even better next time. It's satisfying to know that you're really great at what you do, because you've worked and practiced and honed your skills.
Your business might be hard right now, but can you find the joy in the hard work?
Remember, you're in the process of developing Mastery.
It'll make the process, and the payoff, so much more satisfying.
You've got this,
p.s. Speaking of AI: I'm thinking about doing a zoom series on how to maximize your time & productivity well (which will likely include a section on some ways to use AI without turning into a zombie). Does this pique your interest? Click here to be the first to hear about it.
p.p.s. One more thing: If you're “coaching curious” and want to hear more about what 1-1 business coaching can do for your business and life, Schedule your free Clarity Call today.