I don’t want this day to end.
Ambition is a dangerous tool. I still don’t know how to wield it properly. Somedays it helps me create really cool things, and other times it feels like I’m stabbing myself with it.
The other day I heard an interview with Mandy Patinkin on National Public Radio. Mandy is the actor who plays Saul on Homeland, a current TV series that’s been successful. He’s also very well known for his role in The Princess Bride.
Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
Mandy has gone through his share of setbacks.
Patinkin suffered from keratoconus, a degenerative eye disease, in the mid-1990s. This led to two corneal transplants, his right cornea in 1997 and his left in 1998. He also was diagnosed with and treated for prostate cancer in 2004.
I enjoyed his perspective on ambition.
When I’m on the Homeland set, and I’m the oldest guy there. I’m so privileged to be with not just young people, but incredibly gifted people that are my teachers and my guides in this particular time of life, and I see some of them spinning their wheels.
I can feel it. “I’m young. This is a good moment in my career. How can I capitalize on this? How can I turn this into something else? How can I make the most of it?”
And that’s how I thought all the time as a kid. And I’m now 60. And I sit there in that room. And it’s a 14-16 hour day, and I don’t want the day to end.
I don’t think for one second, “How can I make more of this. How can I make this get me something.” I could care less. I don’t want this day to end.
I just love it. I know it will end. The one thing I know no matter how successful this is, it’s just a split second on the timeline of history.
Mandy Patinkin
The story above starts at about 12:00 into this podcast.
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