The Changeup: Why recalibrating the meaning of success and managing expectations are essential to avoid burnout as an actor.

Baseball is one of my obsessions. I grew up playing the game, still follow the sport daily and even watch most of the spring training games which don't really mean anything and are essentially practice games. Throughout my career as a talent agent, I have found many similarities between a baseball player and an actor's journey to success through their triumphs and struggles. Each career path is a bumpy, nonlinear road where outside circumstances are tremendous factors. On this road to success, it’s often hard to track progress and define what success looks like if that ultimate finish line of global stardom and recognition isn’t reached. One of my favorite examples of redefining success is the career of a record-holding major league baseball player whose name is likely unfamiliar to even the most avid baseball fans. And don’t worry, no actual baseball knowledge is required to follow this story.?

When you ask a young baseball player what their dream is, it’s hitting a walk-off homerun in game seven of the World Series. Hitting that home run and being mobbed by teammates is the pinnacle moment of that sport. That vision plays over and over in a player’s head during every practice to get them to push themselves just a little bit harder towards realizing that dream.?

Since the first baseball championship in 1876, that exact scenario has happened only once: in 1960 by Bill Mazeroski. How rare is this? Since 1876, there have only been 40 “games sevens” played in World Series history. And that home run? That was only one out of 2,128 home runs hit in that year alone. But so many circumstances outside of Bill’s control had to go his way just to have the opportunity to achieve the feat that every young baseball player dreams of. His team had to make the playoffs, they had to win three games but also lose three games to get to game seven. And out of nine batters who bat in rotation, his turn had to come up in the right spot to win the game. Similarly, if you’re an actor who dreams of winning an Oscar, there are going to be a lot of extenuating circumstances that have to go your way as well just to set you up for success.

This story isn’t about Bill, but I share this anecdote because, in the 150 year history of professional baseball, out of roughly 20,000 professional players to ever play the sport, only one person has ever achieved that feat. What I really want to talk about is one of the other 20,000 players. If you were to metaphorically sit every person who has ever played at least one game of professional baseball during the 150 year history of the sport in an average size major league stadium, that stadium would be about half full. Another way to look at this is that one Cubs game attendance has more people at it than have played the sport professionally. Ever. You’ve probably heard of some of the players like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, Cy Young, Cal Ripken Jr., Barry Bonds or Alex Rodriguez. All of those players would be sitting in that stadium of 20,000 pros. And John Lindsey would also be sitting amongst them.

You don’t recognize the name of baseball record holding player, John Lindsey? Well, John holds the record for spending the most seasons in the minor leagues before making his professional debut. It took John 16 seasons before playing his first professional game for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2010. Once he joined the team, his performance was… not great. He played in 11 games (a typical season has 162) and during his stint, out of 12 chances at the plate, he had one professional hit (a single). Just a few days into his professional career, a pitcher threw a ball a little too close, hitting his hand and breaking it. Just like that, his season was over. After healing in the off-season, he spent a few years bouncing around the minor and Mexican winter leagues, but never made it back to the majors. Not quite the game-winning home run scenario that all aspiring baseball players are hoping to have, but that was the gist of John Lindsey’s professional career.?

Was John Lindsey a successful baseball player? When I first heard his story, I thought it was filled with a lot of disappointment, ultimately getting a taste of success just to have it taken away almost immediately.? And when you look at his statistics, he paled in comparison to some of those more famous baseball players I mentioned earlier. And if you’re in Dodger Stadium’s gift shop, you won’t find a jersey with “Lindsey” on the back anytime soon.?

However, it wasn’t until a recent trip I took to spring training, where the pros and minor league hopefuls get their practice in before the season starts, that I began to see things differently.

In roughly a dozen trips that I've taken to spring training, I’ve seen thousands of baseball players taking the field, hoping to make an impression just to be on a professional team. All were likely the best players on their high school team, some of the best on their college/international teams and yet they are still fighting to make some sort of impression and stand out amongst the other hopefuls. And despite the fact that virtually all of them will likely never achieve that game seven home run, many will never even even play in the pros like John Lindsey did.

If a player doesn’t make it to the professional roster during spring training, they have to count on finding a way up during the season such as relying on an injury or a trade as a main way to get called up to the pros. All of these circumstances are outside of their control and difficult to predict. If that doesn’t work out in their favor during the season, they’ll just have to wait until next spring training to leave their mark. Sounds kind of like the mentality surrounding a traditional pilot season, doesn’t it??

Baseball and acting are both insatiable career pursuits. In the unlikely event of a player hitting that World Series-winning home run, that’s not really the end, is it? If you hit it once, you’ll want to do it again. And again and again. There is never “enough” success.?

This same phenomenon is true with acting. There is no finish line or point when an actor finally feels complete. At the 2016 Golden Globe awards, presenter Jim Carrey jokingly stated, “I am two-time Golden Globe Winner, Jim Carrey... And when I dream, I don’t just dream any old dream. No sir. I dream about being three-time Golden Globe winning actor, Jim Carrey. Because then I would be enough. It would finally be true. And I could stop this terrible search for what I know ultimately won't fulfill me.”?

In my career, I’ve worked with many actors who feel that once they book their first series regular role (something incredibly hard to do), they will finally be happy and feel successful. They should. But for many, once they book that first series regular role, they begin to wonder why that happiness isn’t appearing in the way they thought it would. As soon as the first season wraps, they begin to worry if there will be a second. And if there is a second season, will there be a third? What about award consideration? Will they be nominated? What about being typecast in future series regulars because of the success of the first series? Will producers think of them as TV stars who aren’t serious enough to star in movies? The anxiety spiral can be never-ending and it does not stop once an actor has found some traditional success.??

Big dreams are integral to one’s success in baseball and acting as it gives a long runway of work that needs to be done to get there. No one plays one game in the minor leagues and says to themself, “I’ve made it this far. Good job, me. I’m done.” The constant analysis of how far one is from that finish line without appreciation for how far they have come is not a sustainable path in a career. Some actors make a habit of not actually realizing just how successful they already are. For example, an actor who has just a few television credits living in Los Angeles already has more television credits than a majority of the hundreds of thousands of actors living in the city. Just making a living solely from acting and no secondary job puts you into a very select group of actors. If you fit into either of those categories and still don’t feel like you’re successful, how do you define success? And is that a healthy and sustainable definition?

As you pursue your career, there will be many smaller milestones along the way such as getting an agent, your family watching your TV debut, joining SAG/AFTRA or your first recurring role, etc. Success is paying off your student loans with money you made as an actor. Success is booking your first TV show. Success is getting good feedback. Success is putting another audition on tape when the sting of not getting the last one still hasn’t dissipated.?And it's important to recognize and celebrate those success along the way.

The all-or-nothing mentality that only the highest levels of success will bring you happiness is a mentality that will very quickly lead to burnout and failure. Every milestone you achieve, you’ve made it farther along than more actors. And when you achieve each one of those milestones, you can either think of yourself as John Lindsey, the baseball player who sadly only got one professional hit after spending 16 years in the minor leagues and never was able to hit the game-seven home run. Or, you can be John Lindsey, professional baseball player who was one of only 20,000 people in history to ever play baseball professionally and sits in that same metaphorical stadium amongst the all-time greats.