Here's an advanced tip. And again, it's it's a little bit complicated, counterintuitive, because there is a school of thought that says you want to be successful say yes to life. Say yes. Shonda Rhimes, one of the most successful TV producers ever wrote a whole book, the year of saying, Yes, she'd been so used to saying no. I want to look at this from a slightly different perspective for many people who are successful have some level of success and productivity. They're far better off saying no to everything, so they have even more time to focus on that one thing they do well, Jerry Seinfeld, the famed comedian, and the producer and namesake for the most successful English based sitcom in the history of the world, has talked about this at length and he said, the key to our success was we just said no to everything all we did.
During the nine years of his show was we wrote the show. And we shot the show. That's it. So he turned down media interview requests. He turned down requests for meetings with network executives. He turned down requests for doing other showbiz type things and meeting with executives, children, all sorts of things that were all nice opportunities.
He turned down dinner requests, he turned down banquets. He just said no, to a constant stream of request on his time. Because he had something right in front of them. That was a goldmine if he could just keep creating another great episode. And another great season, it would go and go and go until he got to quit on his own terms that were up to his TV network. he'd still be doing the show it would be going into its 30th year now.
He quit when he wanted to. He made an absolute fortune. He went down in history as the greatest sitcom, star and producer of a show ever. And it worked for him. He credits it to a single minded focus. You certainly see this with Olympic Quality Act of athletes and professional level athletes of all sorts.
They turned down, going to their prom, and hanging out with friends and going out for a beer was constantly saying no, because they had to just focus on whether it's swimming or whatever their sport was. Now, I don't mean to sound like you can never have any fun or ever have any life if you want to be successful and productive. But I do want you to be aware of the strategies Some people use to are wildly productive for at least a part of their career, especially when everything was in alignment and they had this idea opportunity to really create something of lasting importance and have lasting quality.