A Blank Check
Jim Carrey’s bet on himself
Picture this, you’re in the ninth grade when your father loses his job as an accountant and to pick up the slack, after school, you now must work an eight-hour shift at a factory. Your whole family including your parents and three older siblings are moved out of the house into a Volkswagen camper van.
This “picture” was a reality for Jim Carrey, who, by the age of fifteen had attempted to work at a comedy club in Toronto. Although his first show was not well received by the audience, two years later he became the club’s opening act. It would have been easy for Jim Carrey to quit after his first failure, especially as a fifteen-year-old. This type of determination seems to be a major part of Carrey’s life, as it is visible throughout his career.
As soon as Jim Carey was front lining the comedy club and wasn’t homeless, many people would say that he had “made it” and that his success story was over. Jim wasn’t satisfied and continued to search for new outlets for success. In 1983, he appeared on his first TV show and from then on, he began to land roles on screen. One of the first roles that made Jim famous was his acts on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. On this show, Jim did various impressions such as Elvis Presley, Kevin Bacon, and Wile E. Coyote.
Jim Carrey has something that most people in this world lack, he believed in himself. He refused to become complacent with his life and instead looked to the future and saw greatness. By the age of nineteen Jim decided to move to Hollywood to further his acting career. After a failed attempt to make it in the big city, Jim found himself broke and without work. Instead of it being a career killer, he continued to dream big. He could see things in himself that other people didn’t see. In 1985, Jim drove to the top of a hill overlooking the Los Angeles skyline. He decided to take this time to write himself a blank check for ten million dollars. It seems as though in his lowest, Jim had his biggest dreams in mind.
It appears this boost of confidence was all Jim needed to push himself to the next level. Over the course of the next couple of years, Jim began to land big roles and began to make major money. Carrey starred in movies such as Ace Venture: Pet Detective and Dumb and Dumber which jumpstarted his career in the movie business. Jim earned 350,000 dollars from Ace Venture and a whopping 7 million dollars from Dumber. In 1994, Jim’s father passed away, and although Jim had made well over ten million dollars, he put the withered, empty check in his father’s coffin. He had kept his promise that he had made 9 years ago and even gone beyond that. I wonder if he could’ve ever imagined that ten years ago when he made out that blank check that he would gain exactly what he wanted, but lose something he could never replace.
As Jim looked back on his career, one question may have stirred around in his head. Was it all worth it? All of the movies, comedy shows, and years he had devoted to the entertainment business. The hours that a kid from Newmarket, Canada, spent in front of a mirror practicing his impersonations because he loved to make people smile. If he could throw away all the money, and wake up tomorrow with his family in the Volkswagen camper van, he would go back with a smile on his face knowing that money did nothing but distract him from something that was irreplaceable.
Where do you see yourself in ten years? Do you see yourself with ten million dollars in your hand? One of the biggest pushes today is to live life day by day, to live in the moment. If Jim Carrey would’ve shared this mindset, he would never have set goals that motivated him to be successful. It seems like sometimes we get so caught up in the now that we fail to step back and look at the grand scheme of things. Jim Carrey knew what he was going to accomplish and set himself a path to make his goals a reality.
