Rodney Dangerfield: A Talentless Legend

I generally think that blogs and articles that simply make reference to other writing is lazy and redundant, but sometimes you need to recognize the fire when you see it. I’ve got some fire for you and I can only hope to add some marginal insight for you all. How’s this for an opening passage?

“Imagine having no talent. Imagine being no good at all at something and doing it anyway. Then, after nine years, failing at it and giving it up in disgust and moving to Englewood, N.J., and selling aluminum siding. And then, years later, trying the thing again, though it wrecks your marriage, and failing again. And eventually making a meticulous study of the thing and figuring out that, by eliminating every extraneous element, you could isolate what makes it work and just do that. And then, after becoming better at it than anyone who had ever done it, realizing that maybe you didn’t need the talent. That maybe its absence was a gift.” (Letter of Recommendation: Rodney Dangerfield) 

This is the story of Rodney Dangerfield. I caution you to not let this story move past you too quickly. Since you know who Rodney Dangerfield is you might not understand what you just read because you know how the story ends.

Rodney didn’t have the luxury of knowing the happily-ever-after details of how things would shake out. Put yourself right now in the uncertainty Rodney faced on the first day at work selling aluminum siding at Lifetime Exteriors’. Now, try on the hat of the man who quit this sales job to sit in the uncertainty of trying his craft again. Then, bathe in the internal questioning of the man who made this choice and was rewarded with a failed marriage. Can you see him packing up his belongings? Saying bye to his ex-wife? Or, do you just see Caddyshack?

If all you see is Caddyshack, two things are happening. Firstly, you’re discounting this mans suffering and, secondly, you’re building an erroneous view of how success happens. This is why us humans dissociate with remarkable success. We have built a false understanding of remarkable characters because we don’t recognize the whole story.

Inconceivable success can be surprisingly pedestrian. I challenge you not to make a remarkable human accomplishment into something only for immortals like Rodney Dangerfield. Rodney Dangerfield became immortal through the most mundane human processes.

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach