In the Unconventional Career Advice category, I’m putting Steve Martin’s memoir Born Standing Up. I’m a big fan of Martin’s writing, so it was a given that I would read his recent book about his stand-up comedy career.

I was expecting a well-written description of what happened in the 1970s, when he’d already made a name for himself and was selling out gigantic arenas. He does cover that, but the main focus of the book is everything leading up to that point, all of which turns out to be much more interesting.

Obviously, if you’re planning on becoming a stand-up comedian when you grow up, you could do worse than take advice from Steve Martin. But while I was reading the book, I kept seeing how solid and telling and honest and thorough Martin’s ‘advice’ is, and therefore how relevant that makes it for any other endeavor. He doesn’t even necessarily intend for it to be an advisory, how-to volume; his main intent is to explain how and why he made such an all-consuming journey.

Cal Newport, over at Study Hacks, was also struck by how well the book works as advice on more than just becoming a comedian. You should read the excellent post he has about how to become famous using ‘the Steve Martin method,’ which he outlines perfectly in the post.

Gary Woodill at Brandon Hall Research uses Martin’s memoir, along with Jerry Seinfeld’s documentary, Comedian, as examples of deep learning, which is the type of learning that takes “years to acquire, engaged immersion in the world, and lots of hard work.” Surface learning, on the other hand, requires much less time and effort. Surface learning is just the memorization of (and not the full-on learning of) the material or the process.

There is nothing ‘surface’ about Steve Martin’s comedic process; he swims in it, lives it, and breathes it for eighteen years until he burns out and walks away. It’s exhausting to read about, but it’s also pretty damned riveting to follow someone’s intense and incredibly focused journey to success. He doesn’t let up, he’s constantly learning and revising and thinking about the details and trying to grok the bigger picture. I think if you have that much focus and energy and depth of thought to put into something, you’re going to be okay.

Posted by Alexa Harrington