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• During the 1970s Steve Martin became a legendary comedian before transitioning to film by adopting a specific mindset to his work.

• The same mantra for success that catapulted Martin would help one writer sell over 2,000,000 million copies of his books.

• The Craftsman Mindset—available to anyone seeking success—prioritizes improvements to your work through critical metrics, not quick “hacks.”

Legendary Comedian Steve Martin on How to Become Successful

During the 1970s, Saturday Night Live's TV ratings would spike by a million viewers when one man appeared, Steve Martin.

Throughout the 70s, Martin would become one of the most celebrated stand-up comedians with his iconic three-piece white suit, banjo, and balloon animal act, making numerous appearances on popular shows The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and HBO's On Location.

Before transitioning to film full-time in the 1980s, Martin's comedy shows consistently sold out full-size stadiums.

An audience member once asked Martin, "How do you become successful?"

Martin's response:

"You have to become undeniably good at something."

After leaving stand-up comedy in the early 80s, Martin starred in several box-office hits, including The Jerk, Parenthood, The Pink Panther, and the Father of the Bride and Cheaper by the Dozen franchises.

Martin's work spans over 50 years, including directing, writing, and Broadway.

'Be So Good They Can't Ignore You'

In 2007, on The Charlie Rose Show, Martin expanded on his declaration that you have to become undeniably good at something when he said, "be so good they can't ignore you."

In Cal Newport's bestselling book, So Good They Can't Ignore You, he tells the story of the impact Martin's words had on his own work:

Martin's words inspired Newport to focus on a new axiom in his work:

"Stop focusing on these little details…Focus instead on becoming better."

A hypothesis Newport would describe as "liberating."

The Craftsman Mindset

From that point forward, Cal Newport began to focus on an "output-centric approach" to his work, also known as 'the craftsman mindset.'

Instead of focusing on outcomes you have little control over, you focus on the work—the process of getting better and better each day.

Newport, finishing up a Ph.D. in computer science, began to track one outcome: hours spent thinking hard about research problems.

A similar approach is helpful for anyone aiming to gain momentum in their field or a specific goal. You prioritize improvements by tracking the most critical metric to improving your work. And limit the shallow details that don't provide the necessary progress.

You know, all those things you convince yourself matter but don't produce progress in your goals.

It's a distinct shift from how to "hack" your success or constantly checking your results in real-time. Process over outcome. It requires patience, consistency, and endurance. All of which are staples in nearly every success story.

So did this approach work for Newport?

Newport is the author of seven books and has sold well over 2,000,000 copies, including multiple New York Times bestsellers. He's also an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University.

Work Ethic vs. Talent

Come back to the Martin and Rose interview in 2007, where Rose asked Martin, "Do you think you are more prodigious than smart?"

After a chuckle, Martin says:

Diligence. Focus. Elimination.

Timeless qualities that have consistently paid dividends for those willing to invest in them. Intelligence helps. And nobody with a right mind would turn down God-given talent. But neither decide the story of success.

The same goes for opportunities, connections, and 'who you know.' All things help, but none determine if the work is "undeniably great."

How to Become Successful

"Overnight success" is an overused description that silences the most critical part of any success story.

It's countless hours a writer spent at their keyboard before the sun came up or hours spent picking away at a guitar when nobody was listening. It's rep after rep in the gym, building mastery over the body.

As Steve Martin pointed out, and Cal Newport discovered, there's no secret, just diligent, consistent hard work on presenting to the world something worth noticing.

In the afterthoughts and shadows of success, we find the truth about what anyone needs to become successful: an enormous amount of intentional practice at the thing that matters most.

Toiling away at that thing you do, getting better, just a little—day after day after day.

So if you want success in life, start focusing on the story behind the story—the work done in the dim light of a dream. Not what it looks like on headlines or Instagram or even what life might look like if you reach your goals.

But by far less glamorous or poetic moments stuck 'in the process.'

Then, if you still want it, you've found something worth pursuing.

Because that's the price of becoming 'so good they can't ignore you.'

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