“All Consuming Desire To Succeed”

“All Consuming Desire To Succeed”

John Ratzenberger, the know-it-all mailman named

Cliff on the hit TV series Cheers, landed the acting job on

the show only after failing to land a part at an audition.

Up that point in his career, he’d never made it big. He was

unknown and just a couple of years earlier was struggling to

scrape together enough for a meal. After failing his audition

for a part on the Cheers series, he said to himself, “I failed

already; what do I have to lose at this point?”

He asked the Cheers executives at the audition, “Do you

have a know-it-all at the bar yet?” The Cheers people said,

“What?” He replied, “You know, a know-it-all; every bar

has a know-it-all at their bar!” At that point, he proceeded

to improvise, using office furniture as props and showing

the show’s executives the kind of character he was talking

about. The Cheers executives laughed at the character and

a few days later told John that they were interested in his

character, but for only a few shows.

The rest is history. The show aired for more than ten

years and John Ratzenberger, a struggling, balding actor,

wound up on the show for the full duration. He turned out to

be a very accomplished actor who found wealth and prestige

all because he went the extra mile. He put aside his fear of

rejection and presented the executives with something they

didn’t even know they needed.

John used a form of inspirational dissatisfaction. He did

not give up on the first try. His belief in himself and what he

had to offer led to the once-in-a-lifetime role.

Do you have the nerve and the confidence not to give

up? After failing in one audition, he came up with an

impromptu performance and a new idea for the executives.

A failure is never the end. It simply means you have to

reprogram yourself to do more creative, positive thinking

in order to find the right way to do something successfully.

If you give up too soon, you are likely giving in to those

childhood voices that keep telling you, “Don’t do that” and

“No, no, no!”

Vince Lombardi once said, “Winning is not a sometime

thing. It is an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while,

you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right

all the time. There is no room for second place...”

C-2005 John Paul Carinci