Will Ferrell is arguably one of the funniest television and movie personalities of our time. But before trying to cure Christopher Walkin's fever for more cowbell, Ferrell was a scared college graduate living at his mother's house unsure for the direction of his life. Speaking to the audience of USC's 2017 graduating class, the comedian shares some of his lessons from life that helped discourage him from pursuing his interest in sports casting, to pursuing his passion for comedy.

          There is one concept in particular that Ferrell talks about that I found most interesting – that is, his ability to drown out the distractions and noise of pessimism by constantly throwing darts at the dart board until something stuck.

          In 1991 Will Ferrell began the relentless pursuit of his dream, and took a variety of classes and performing opportunities at the famous Groundlings Theatre in Los Angeles; he also tried stand-up comedy, but admits, this particular area of comedy was not his strong suit. But he didn't care, because he was just trying to throw as many darts at the dart board as possible hoping eventually one of them would stick.      

          This mentality of relentless perseverance is not easy to maintain. Which is why to his credit, we appreciate his going further into some of those darker times where he would question himself – situations like coming home to a meal of spaghetti and mustard, having only $20 in his bank account. He tells us how he was afraid, but in his own inspiring words, quote "my fear of failure never approached in magnitude to my fear of what if? What if I never tried at all?" Thankfully it is just that mentality of always asking what if that kept Ferrell working, throwing more darts at the dart board, and in 1995 being offered the opportunity to audition for SNL with executive producer Lorne Michaels and eventually being hired to the cast for the 95-96 season.

          Ferrell never stopped throwing darts at the dart board, and it proved to be one of the best tools for helping him remain focused on his goal and disregard the negativity of outside influences. Ferrell shares another story where after a number of seasons with SNL, respected critic for the Washington Post Tom Shales approach him on his last season of the show to congratulate him on his work, and to apologize for some of the things he had written about him during his earlier years with the show. But it's funny, because in Will's words, "I hadn't read his reviews, in fact I didn't read any reviews because, once again, I was too busy throwing darts at the dart board. All the while facing my fears."

          Friends, the road of relentless perseverance in pursuit of our goals will be lined with negativity – but as we note from Ferrell, the most effective way for drowning out the noise is by continuing to throw darts at the dart board. 

 

The views of this blog, podcast, and on this site in general are solely those of the authors, Matt Weaver (NMLS-175651) and Zack Lewis, and do not express the views or opinions of Finance of America Mortgage.