Myth Six 1 g: You will get "discovered."

I was surprisingly comforted when I read Steve Martin's book and learned that he too thought his world was going to change after his first appearance on national television. Yet, his first appearance on the Johnny Carson show barely left a blip on the radar. The amount of money in the bank didn't change for him, the number of people in his subsequent shows didn't increase for him, the number of fans who recognized him in the streets didn't change. 


My guess is that instead of being "disvovered" he discovered a little bit more about himself. He went onto to say that it wasn't until he had appeared on Carson about 12 times, Letterman around 17 times and then had another appearance on SNL that things began to shift. Does it make sense? Of course. When I see a comedian on a show or an actor in a movie once, I don't rush out and Google them. It takes a while for me to recognize who they are and what they do.


When I landed my first cover story, it was a bit of a mind game. I was excited, but the money in my bank account didn't change, I wasn't suddenly inundated with telephone calls asking me to perform, and I was never recognized in the street from it. Yet, I was excited (very) and then disappointed. I realized that the feelings that I wanted to feel (that "rock star" feeling) needed to come from inside of me. These feelings aren't dependent on any person, place or condition. Generating these feelings on an ongoing basis is what helps to comprise our self-esteem and self-confidence. It's up to us to manage these feelings on our own independant of what may or may not be happening in our career.