On this episode, and I sit down with actor John Pankow, who starred in the hit TV series Mad About You. John shares about the power of gratitude in fueling his own career success and encourages middle and high schoolers to adopt a similar mindset regardless of their interests.
Michael Horn: Welcome to Youth Career Readiness, the One Question Podcast.
Jean Eddy: I'm Jean Eddy.
Michael: And I'm Michael Horn.
Jean: And this is the podcast where we talk to people across careers about their professional journeys and what advice they would offer.
Michael: To help all middle and high schoolers explore, experiment with, and discover careers.
Jean: Michael, the world of acting obviously is a hard one to get into, but our guest today has some advice that doesn't just pertain to starring in TV shows and movies. It's also just general good life advice. Our guest today is John Pankow. You may know John from his starring role in the sitcom Mad About You, as well as his roles in Amadeus and The Aristocrats.
Michael: And John, our question for you is this. What would you tell someone who's mentoring a middle or high school student about what career advice they should be giving them?
John Pankow: One of the things I learned early in life that really, really helped me—and this goes for whether you're pursuing academic interests or whether you're out in the, you know, once you finish school—once you've chosen something that you want to chase—a dream, whether it's the arts, whether it's medicine, whether it's business—don't wait for success to be grateful.
If you're grateful for the success that you know is coming, that you know, just own it in your heart, just trust it, it draws the success to you.
I didn't have two nickels to work together when I was a kid, and yet I was profoundly grateful for the success I knew that I was going to have, and I'm convinced that that gratitude and the knowingness that comes with that gratitude was what brought me the success that I was looking for. And that was in the field that obviously was very, very competitive.
So that's my two cents. Hope it helps.
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