Thrive: 30 Inspirational Rags-to-Riches Stories

Jerry Seinfeld

Jerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a sign maker and his mother was a homemaker. From the age of eight, Jerry dreamed of becoming a successful comedian. He was heavily influenced by his father's comedy, as well as the comedy of television comics, including Abbott and Costello and Bill Cosby. Jerry worked tirelessly on his comedy routines throughout middle and high school. After high school, Jerry attended Oswego College in upstate New York, but later transferred to Queens College in New York City.

Shortly after graduating from college, Jerry performed stand-up comedy for the first time. It was a disaster. Terrified, Jerry could only mumble a few ineffectual words into the microphone. Although he had failed, Jerry was eager to try again. He wrote a new act and appeared at different comedy clubs. He landed the position of emcee at The Comic Strip and observed the comedians as they performed. He was a hard worker with a strong attention to detail. He also refused to use profanity in his stand-up routines.

Jerry worked for many years as a freelance comedian at different clubs. At twenty-six years old, Jerry headed for Los Angeles, California to join its growing comedy club circuit. After a year, he landed a small role on the television series Benson, where he went from earning $40/night in the clubs to $4,000/episode. Although Jerry thought he was good, the producers thought otherwise. He arrived at rehearsals one day to discover there wasn't a script for him. After just three episodes, Jerry was fired, in a rather humiliating way.

Devastated, Jerry returned to stand-up in the comedy clubs. One night, a producer saw his act and booked him to be on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. To prepare for the show, for thirty days, Jerry ran five miles and practiced his comedy routine during the same five minutes he would perform. He wanted to be sure there was no chance he would fail at this opportunity. All of the hard work paid off, as Jerry became a hit on the show and was asked back several times.

Following his success on television, Jerry went on a comedy tour around the United States, performing over 300 shows per year. He was driven, and his dreams seemed to be just within his grasp. However, things took a stumbling turn when Jerry's father died of cancer. Jerry stopped touring and found it difficult to move on. His father had a huge impact on his life, and now he was gone.

It took six weeks before Jerry was able to return to the comedy stage. Not long after, an executive from NBC approached Jerry and offered for him to create his own television special. The only problem, however, was Jerry had no idea what the show should be about. His friend and fellow comedian, Larry David, helped Jerry with creating the pilot, entitled The Seinfeld Chronicles. The pilot almost failed to go on the air, as the show was generally negatively received by test audiences. NBC originally passed on the show, but NBC executive Rick Ludwin convinced his superiors and even offered his own personal budget to order four more episodes, which is considered to be the smallest order for a sitcom ever received on a network. The four episodes aired a year later, and Seinfeld became one of the most successful sitcoms in television history, with nine seasons and 180 episodes. The series finale, "The Finale," aired on May 14, 1998 with 76.3 million viewers.