I’m Successful

Every week I lose money. I’m not on TV, I don’t have lots of followers, and I’m massively successful.

By all metrics, a kid that grew up on the streets of Queens walking into conference rooms in a fly suit to lead teachers in educational ideas is a wilder success story than I could’ve imagined for myself. And 14 weeks ago, I quit that job so I could focus on stand-up comedy.

Before you go, “pshhh,” let me stop your head from rolling and your eyebrows from raising in disbelief. Lemme ask you–have you defined success for yourself? If you haven’t, our society has instilled success’s definition in you. Most of the time, that means money; even unconsciously, those are our success stories; “I used to sleep on the floor, and now I have a mega-yacht!”

We look at those mega-yachters, and our brain goes–that’s it! Society has rewarded this person, and money is the proof!

As our minds prop up these rich people who seem happy–are we being biased in not noticing all the rich, sad people?

Money cannot be the thing that makes you successful, like my man J. Cole told me:

“Always gon’ be a bigger house somewhere

Always gon’ be a whip that’s better than the one you got

Always gon’ be some clothes that’s fresher than the ones you rock

But you ain’t never gon’ be happy ’til you love yours.”

Ok, what about fame? That’s what success is in my business. But, I haven’t blown up on tik-tok; a prominent comedian hasn’t rescued me from my meager local shows to perform in sold-out theatres. If Netflix came up to me and said, “Sammy Anzer, we’re ready to give you a special,” then my life would be complete, right?

I remember that idea. But once people have the fans and the millions, why do they keep working? That’s the point of working; to make enough money to retire on a beach and never work.

But Dave Chappelle, Billie Ellish, and the dot-lady Yayoi Kusama are still all working–why?

There has to be something more valuable than fame and money. Why keep doing?

It’s the act of creating. Creating is the success.

I can make a million and lose it–most people who win the lottery do.

I can be loved by the public, hated by them, and then loved again–celebrities know this.

I’ve cashed checks I’ve forgotten about, gained fans, and lost followers.

But who can take from me what I’ve pulled out of myself, my heart work? No one.

When you dive inside yourself to do something you haven’t done before, that is success. And because nobody can give that to you, nobody can take it from you.

Have you thought about writing a song, dancing in a class, painting a landscape? You should. Here’s why:

If you do it, and you do great — fantastic.

If you do it and you do poorly–great. You still did something that challenged you, and that’s scary. And doing scary things is success.

And stand-up comedy might be the most punishing of the art forms. What could be more challenging than baring your ideas, your story, and your faith in yourself for people to reject openly?

Every night.

The magic of creativity is that we can be inspired by joy, our pain, and even in the mundane. Diving into yourself and pulling those moments out allows you to process them and that allows you healing–and it allows the audience to connect your story to their stories. You find the things you think are intensely personal and all your own–are not. And when you watch people connect to your personal moments, it reminds you that we are connected, and we share different colors of the same monotony, pain and joy.

And any people who were not able to see themselves in your story at first were just giving you the time to improve your craft so they could find themselves there.

And that faith in yourself? The one that pushes you to fail again–inspires them to have faith in themselves.

I’m successful because I spend my time–the most precious commodity–how I want to. I wake up, write things that make me laugh, respond to emails so I can make people laugh in other cities, create videos of my jokes, go to the gym, kiss my girlfriend, and then perform at night. Every time I get to spend my time doing those things–I win.

Beautiful.

How would you like to spend your time? And don’t say lying out on a beach. I know we can be stressed and a tropical drink on the beach sounds like the antidote–and it can be for a day, a week–but what about a decade?

Sounds like a punishment.

I implore you. As soon as you finish this. Define success in how you want to spend your time each day. Imagine you had to “Groundhog day” , repeating the same day every day, what would you want that Groundhog day to look like from morning to night?

Writing that down will reveal to you what’s most important to you. And understanding what’s most important to you will help you take steps towards that. Even if it’s in the twenty minutes before you go to work.

And if you can conceive it, include something creative in there. Something that will challenge you to pull things out of your heart because the things that are inside you are the same things inside all of us.

When you dive into the depths of yourself, you come to understand your heart more deeply. Understanding your heart helps you understand the human heart we share. And deeply understanding our human heart and our human experience makes you a better human.

Dive into yourself. Do it without regard for success–and that is success.