Jerry Seinfeld is one of the most successful comedians of modern times. He has received unprecedented success both on and off screen, and he breaks down his success into a number of factors – little mantras which he lives by which help push him, keeping him achieving little milestones regularly.

Jerry Seinfeld doesn’t believe in writer’s block

Seinfeld has written so many TV scripts and comedy stand up shows you would struggle to count them all. How does he keep these words flowing? Put simply, he just doesn’t believe in writer’s block.

“Writer’s block is a phony, made up, BS excuse for not doing your work,” Seinfeld says.

Money shouldn’t be your sole motivator

Although we all love to earn money – it’s what keeps most of us in a job after all – Seinfeld believes you need to do more than simply make money. He believes that without feeling passionate about what you do – whether that’s a career in comedy or something else – you won’t love your job and therefore won’t see success.

Be obsessive about detail

One of the most important steps to success is to be ‘obsessive about detail,’ Seinfeld believes. First you need an idea, then you need to execute it, but then the third and final step needs to be becoming obsessive about the details of your plan.

In careers like comedy, detail is everything. If you can pick up on little details within your audience, you can take your performance from good to great.

Get into a routine and build positive habits

Another key to Seinfeld’s success is that he gets into a routine and creates positive activity which he repeats day in and day out. For Seinfeld, this is writing every day. For other comedians (check out our blog on Larry David), it might be working on a different aspect of comedy. Whatever it is you want to perfect to make yourself more successful, the key is to practise that every day ‘without breaking the chain’, as Seinfeld likes to call it.

There’s no doubting Jerry Seinfeld is an extremely talented comedian and writer. And if we can take some of his recipes for success and replicate them, perhaps we can follow in his footsteps. Do you have any success tips to add?