Success Is About Consistency, Not Genius: Seinfeld’s Rule”

A note to young leaders.

Give me consistency over genius, any day. Jerry Seinfeld is a case in point.
A young comedian once asked Seinfeld if he had any tips for success. Here’s what Seinfeld said:

“The way to be a better comic is to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes is to write lots of jokes.

Get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. Then get a big red magic marker, and for each day that you write a new joke, you get to put a big red X over that day.

After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day.”

Note that Seinfeld didn’t say anything about results. It didn’t matter if he was writing great jokes or not.

The only thing that mattered is not breaking the chain.