Before there was Walter White, there was Sneaky Pete.
On finding your passion.
The 2014 Emmy Awards took place on Monday night. While I never really care to watch award shows, I did catch Brian Cranston’s speech as he accepted his award for playing Walter White on Breaking Bad. I found his advice on finding one’s passion inspiring, and spent a better portion of the last two days really thinking about the words he used during his speech.
“I was a kid who always looked for the shortcut — schemer. My own family nicknamed me Sneaky Pete. ….My own family. …So, I did happen to stumble upon finding a passion that created a seed and bloomed into something so wonderful for me. I love to act, it is a passion of mine and I will do it until my last breath. Um.. I can only say that I have gratitude for everything that has happened. “
[Followed by a whole bunch of thank you’s]
“Finally, I wanna just say that… I’d like to dedicate this award to all the Sneaky Pete’s of the world, who thought that maybe settling for mediocrity was a good idea because it was safe — don’t do it. Take a chance, take a risk, find that passion, rekindle it, fall in love all over again, it’s really worth it. God bless you, thank you very much.”
You can also watch it here (his speech starts at the 1 minute mark):
So what did I find so interesting and inspiring? Let me break it down.
“I was a kid who always looked for the shortcut — schemer. My own family nicknamed me Sneaky Pete. ….My own family.”
This hit home for me. For anyone that knows me well, I’ve also always been that guy — the one looking for a shortcut, the one trying to find an easier way of getting things done, or the one trying to optimize different parts of my life. I wouldn’t use the word schemer, but ‘Sneaky Pete’ searching for shortcuts fits well. In fact, when I look back at my life, I realized I’ve actually gone to school for it by obtaining a degree in Industrial Engineering (Industrial engineering is defined as a branch of engineering which deals with the optimization of complex processes or systems.)
So I think I’ve become really good at finding shortcuts. Great, but there’s just one problem. I don’t know what my passion is or what the passion discovery process is either. As a result, I don’t know what process to optimize here or what shortcut I can take that will help me discover it faster.
“So, I did happen to stumble upon finding a passion that created a seed and bloomed into something so wonderful for me. I love to act, it is a passion of mine and I will do it until my last breath. ”
Cranston uses the term “stumble upon” when referring to finding his passion. This is interesting because his choice of words make it clear that he too wasn’t aware of his passion at the time. It was as though it were something that came to him by chance. He goes on and describes his passion as creating a “seed” that “bloomed” into something wonderful. In these sentences, he does a couple of things:
- He tells us that behind his success lies his passion
- He makes it clear that his success didn’t come overnight; like a seed that has to be nurtured over time, so did his passion for acting before it “bloomed into something so wonderful”
- He uses his time to tell us how much he truly loves acting (as opposed to other actors who typically use the time solely to thank specific people/companies that contributed to the professional accomplishment)
“Um.. I can only say that I have gratitude for everything that has happened.”
When I heard this, I felt as though Cranston was expressing gratitude for all the events in his life that ultimately lead to his success. I noticed that he didn’t attribute it to any one individual, event, or big acting break. While this may be a stretch, the tone of his voice gave me the impression that he seemed thankful for the entire journey (inclusive of its ups and downs).
“Finally, I wanna just say that … I’d like to dedicate this award to all the Sneaky Pete’s of the world, who thought that maybe settling for mediocrity was a good idea because it was safe — don’t do it. Take a chance, take a risk, find that passion, rekindle it, fall in love all over again, it’s really worth it. God bless you, thank you very much.”
Cranston get’s personal here. He tells all the Sneaky Pete’s of the world to “rekindle” their passions and “fall in love all over again”, almost as though he were describing the rekindling of failed relationship. With that, I decided to dig a bit deeper on how he got started and came across this in Wikipedia:
After college, Cranston began his acting career in local and regional theaters, getting his start at the Granada Theater in the San Fernando Valley. He had previously performed as a youth, but his show business parents had mixed feelings about their son being involved in the profession, so he did not continue until years later. He started working regularly in the late 1980s, mostly doing minor roles and advertisements.
I also noticed that he was born in 1956. So, if he was born in ‘56 and started working in the late 80s, I figure he must have been at least 29–30 when he actually got back into acting. This made me appreciate his comments even more, because I think he actually did have to rekindle his own relationship with acting and figure out his true feelings towards this interest before it became his passion. I suspect that he probably had to go through some sort of passion discovery process to figure out if acting was truly something he wanted to commit his professional life to.
Doing a quick search on IMDB and one can tell that he was still relatively unknown actor (despite his part time role as Jerry’s dentist in Seinfeld), until he landed the role of Hal in Malcolm in the Middle in 2000. If I’m interpreting the data correctly, that’s about twenty years of work before taking on a major role in a popular TV show (or getting any real spotlight); Cranston remained dedicated to his passion for two decades. Then in 2008, at the age of 53 he landed his role as Walter White in Breaking Bad, taking him to superstardom.
What did I take away from all of this?
Ultimately, I gained a new perspective in Cranston’s speech: why not look at finding your passion as finding the one you want to spend the rest of your life with. The one you’re willing to work on building a relationship with (despite the obstacles), because you know deep down it’s worth it and you’re a happier individual because of it. Taking that perspective and expanding the analogy a little further, here’s what I’ve learned:
- There’s someone out there for everybody. — Sneaky Pete’s can find their passions too, but unfortunately there aren’t any shortcuts.
- Don’t settle because you’re running out of time or are too scared to end up alone. — Remain vigilant on fending off mediocrity and safety (i.e. settling). I’m not suggesting that leading a “safe” lifestyle with financial security is bad, but this can be a slippery slope to mediocrity. Be cognizant of this.
- When you’re on the dating circuit, and all hope seems to be lost… — Be mindful of the fact that this is in fact a journey, and through perseverance, the journey can be worth it.
- Maybe there is someone that I didn’t give enough of a chance, didn’t fight for hard enough for, and became the one that got away. — Consider looking back at old interests and previous hobbies as ex-girlfriends (or ex-relationships depending on what you’re into) to see if there’s something there that was overlooked in the past.
Any other dating cliches that I’ve missed here? =) I’d love to hear from you.
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