Making It

The entertainment industry is big, big business. One blockbuster movie, New York Times Best Seller, or platinum-selling record and a person and his or her family can be financially set for life. However, the industry is also notoriously erratic. You hear horror stories about actors being out of work for decades, writers losing their mojo, and record labels refusing to release artists’ new music. Success requires a cocktail of elements including determination, perseverance, and a lot of luck. Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber weren’t just born stars – they had to be in the right places at the right times, the right ages, have the right looks, and have the talents and willingness to work .The stars have to align just right to create a star. More importantly, success requires the right attitude. 

That said, every generation, there pops up a select few who step up and go above and beyond ordinary measures of success. They work harder than their peers and it shows. Every time you turn around, they are either working on or releasing a new project. Their names are thrown around so much that they are almost synonymous with their crafts. They are the hustlers.

Television

In TV, there is undoubtedly only one king – and he’s not Charlie Sheen. No, this man has so many jobs that it’s a wonder he even has time to sleep. He does everything from hosting to producing and occasionally even acting. I am talking, of course, about the one and only Ryan Seacrest. Ryan, a native of suburban Atlanta, Georgia, got his start by doing the morning announcements at his high school. By 16, he was interning at a local radio station and by college, he was hosting a radio show. After moving to Los Angeles, he paid his dues by lending his voice and image to a multitude of radio and mediocre television shows for much of the 90s.    

In the early 21^st century, however, he found fame and fortune as the host of “American Idol”. The Seacrest Express has been moving at full-speed ever since. Signing lucrative contracts, hosting virtually every big parade and red carpet event, and producing anything on TV with the name “Kardashian” attached, Ryan has gone from a faceless voice on the other end of the radio to a major media mogul. He is the man that knows everyone and, more importantly, the man everyone wants to know. In addition to being groomed as the successor of hosting icon Dick Clark, he has helped completely revitalize the face of the entertainment network E!, making it truly a go-to destination for entertainment at any time of day. He anchors a daily celebrity news show and his production company, RSP, produces some of the highest-rated shows in the history of the network – all while remaining loyal to the medium where he got his start. Ryan hosts two syndicated radio shows. Oh, and he continues to host “American Idol”. Add onto all of that his contracts worth at least $100 million and a partnership with Crest and Scope and Ryan Seacrest has plenty to smile about.

Honorable mention goes to Seth MacFarlane.

Music

It’s no secret who the hardest-working person in music is. Love him or hate him, Lil Wayne has climbed his way to the top of the music empire and his star is showing no signs of fizzling out.

 Dwayne Carter, Jr. got his start at the young age of nine, rapping voice mail messages on the answering machine of Cash Money Records’ founder Bryan “Birdman” Williams. Lil Wayne was soon signed as the youngest member of Cash Money and nearly two decades later, the relationship is still going strong. During that time, Lil Wayne has founded his own successful record label, appeared in over one hundred music videos, and been featured in over 350 songs by other artists – an impressive résumé by any standards.

   

Lil Wayne’s evolution as an entertainer began in about 2006. Already a multiplatinum-selling rap star, the rapper and his people seemed to decide to go a few staircases beyond that. In his hit song “Fireman”, he rapped “Half of the game’s too lazy; still sleepin’ on me but I’m ‘bout to wake ‘em.” Wake ‘em, he did. Beginning in 2006, the rapper began appearing in seemingly every new music video on TV. He even made the unheard of move – especially for a successful and established artist – of distributing several mixtapes free of charge. And these were very, very good mixtapes; better than a lot of artists’ whole albums. All of this led up to the release of his sixth studio album, Tha Carter III. In a time where piracy greatly dilutes the sales of music, the record was certified platinum within a week. This is when the star of Lil Wayne burned the brightest, far surpassing the title of his third studio album. Also during this time, he managed to find, sign, and make stars of artists such as Drake, Jay Sean, and Nicki Minaj.

He may not be the pinnacle of lyrical genius but in a genre full of hustlers, he proves he is music’s ultimate hustler. Without slowing down, he continues to expand his musical empire by signing talent from a variety of genres including rock and R&B. He himself even tapped into a new fan base by recording a rock and roll album. What’s next for the force of nature known as Lil Wayne? Who knows? But whatever it is, it’s going to be big. As he rapped on his 2007 mixtape Da Drought 3, “The sky is the limit”.

Honorable mention goes to Sean “Diddy” Combs and Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter.   

Sports

He has a business empire that stretches from a string of endorsements with Fortune 500 companies to an iconic shoe line that bears his name to majority ownership of a professional basketball team. Even in retirement, Michael Jeffrey Jordan is the hardest working person in sports.

It all started at Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina. It was there that a teenage Michael Jordan was infamously cut from his high school basketball team and it was there where his famous work ethic was shaped tremendously. This event, perhaps more than any other, lit a fire under Michael that has never extinguished. Throughout his playing days, he was often lauded for his will to win, doing whatever it took to achieve his goal. He was notorious for being the first person inside the gym and the last person to leave.

Michael Jordan knew he was good but didn’t believe that he was the greatest. Like a true perfectionist, he identified flaws in his game and worked to solve them. And like a true perfectionist, he was probably never quite satisfied. He satisfied the world, though. Michael is widely considered the greatest basketball player the world has ever seen and the search for the “next Jordan” continues to this day.

After 15 seasons, a slew of records, and hundreds of millions of dollars in salary and endorsements, Michael Jordan hung up his sneakers in April of 2003. Even after retirement, his Air Jordan brand of sneakers and clothing remains as popular as ever. Royalties from sales as well as from his various spokesman positions earn him a comfortable retirement income of reportedly more than $50 million per year. Not content to just hang out on a golf course all day, however, Michael looked to further his legacy, becoming the first athlete-turned-majority-owner in NBA history. With full control of the operations of a major basketball team at his fingertips and a net worth hovering somewhere around half a billion U.S. dollars, hard work, determination, and a refusal to be second-best have served Michael Jordan well.

Honorable mention goes to Eldrick “Tiger” Woods.

Books

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s books have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide, produced a string of hit films, and have cemented her place as the world’s first billionaire author. All of that and she’s not even the hardest working writer. No, that distinction goes to James Patterson, a New York Times bestselling author of thrillers, graphic novels, and non-fiction books. He has authored or co-authored over 70 titles.

James got his first novel published in 1979 after encountering rejection after rejection. Fast forward thirty years and, according to a 2008 ABC Nightline article, he had more number-one best sellers in the previous five years than John Grisham, Tom Clancy, J.K. Rowling, and Dan Brown combined. He holds a Guinness World Record for the most entries on the New York Times Best Seller list. Walk into many libraries and bookstores and there’ll be entire James Patterson sections.

Recently, through collaborations with other writers, James seems to literally be putting out a new book monthly. According to his website, since 2006, one out of every seventeen hardcover fiction books sold has his name on it. His books have come under heavy criticism for their lack of depth, simplistic sentence structure, and the fact that the first drafts of many of his books were actually written by someone else but with over two hundred million copies sold, four books being converted into movies, and a net worth well over $100 million, James Patterson must be doing something right.

Honorable mention goes to Danielle Steel and Nora Roberts.

Motion Pictures

There’s always some debate about who the hardest working person in showbiz is. Names such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, and Angelina Jolie often get thrown around. But while these thespians command eight-figure salaries and sell out theaters simply by having their name attached, they rarely put out more than one film per year. And although a lot of big-name actors these days also run production companies, a lot of big-name actors do very little actual production work. And what’s the fun of being a world-famous movie star if you can’t just hop on a jet or a yacht at a moment’s notice and take a well-deserved vacation?

The reality is that an actor or actress is usually on the set of a movie for around three months. So the actors who put out one film per year do about 90 days’ worth of work per year, not including promotions, press junkets, and the like. By this estimate, a movie star can work on at least four projects per year and quadruple his or her chances for success.

Enter Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill. Although these relative newcomers to the public eye may not seem at first glance to be the hardest working guys in Hollywood, their body of work says differently. These frequent collaborators seem to never read a script that they don’t like.

Seth Rogen got his start doing stand-up comedy before landing parts in the television shows Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. From there, he paid his dues as a comedy writer before soon moving on to movies, including his first major role in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. As comedy producer Judd Apatow’s golden boy, Seth has appeared in or lent his voice to over twenty films since 2004, including Knocked Up, Horton Hears a Who!, and the Kung Fu Panda movies.

Jonah Hill started his career by writing and performing his own plays in college. After being introduced to Academy Award-winning actor Dustin Hoffman, Jonah auditioned for the 2004 film I Heart Huckabees, which became his first major motion picture. This led to Jonah being cast in movies such as, Evan Almighty, How to Train Your Dragon, and Get Him to the Greek. Jonah has also appeared in over twenty films since 2004. In 2007, both he and Seth Rogen were honored as GQ Magazine Men of the Year.

Honorable mention goes to Samuel L. Jackson and Mark Wahlberg.

Summary

As these examples show, whatever the medium, success requires the same basic ingredient – attitude. It’s all about the attitude. All of these people could have stopped when they heard the word “no”. Michael Jordan could have quit basketball after he didn’t make his high school team. James Patterson could have stopped writing after struggling to get his first novel published. Instead, these individuals had the attitude that they were going to fulfill their dreams, no matter the obstacles. These are not people who are content to wait by the phone playing Xbox all day. These are motivated go-getters who don’t let rejection stand in their way. Just because they’ve “made it”, they haven’t stopped working hard. They probably never will. They may not be the best at what they do but they work harder than the rest and that's where their recognition comes in. Rapper and producer Sean “Diddy” Combs once famously tweeted something to the effect of, “If you’re chasing your dream, you’re not running fast enough. Run faster!” Run faster.