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So many creatives work in their careers to build to the success they dream of, but what if you had it right out of the gate? What if every goal you could ever have imagined was surpassed with the very first job you ever had?
Fifty years ago, a very young Henry Winkler went to LA for one month, all his money would allow, fresh from Yale drama school and ready to launch his career. For a month he had almost no success, failing to book anything more than minor day-player gigs.
And then on his birthday, the day before he was due to fly back home and give up, he got a call to audition for a new show called Happy Days, for the small role of Arthur Fonzarelli.
The mild-mannered Winkler doesn’t know what happened to him at that audition, but he said somehow the character just came through him and he inhabited the Fonz: the attitude, the inimitable cool, delivering his lines and then throwing his script down and walking out of the room, in full Fonzie.
Days later he got the call—and he got the job.
Not long after that, his small character proved so popular it got expanded. The show took off, becoming wildly popular. Before long Winkler was world-renowned, and so much the focus of the show that the creators wanted to retitle it Arthur Fonzarelli’s Happy Days.
He refused, embracing the ensemble nature of the cast. But the role he played for ten years became so widely known, so beloved, so iconic that you may often use the phrase “jumping the shark” without realizing that Henry Winkler was the genesis of that, when the Fonz in season five literally jumped over a shark in his motorcycle (thus, in the estimation of Sean Connolly, who coined the term, marking the point of the show that augured its steady subsequent downward spiral).
Arthur Fonzarelli, and Henry Winkler, was a cultural phenomenon beyond any of his wildest dreams.
And then he couldn’t get substantial work as an actor again for years. “I had a plan A and I just lived it. I had no plan B,” he says in a recent Smartless interview. “I literally thought, It’s over. I had the fear, What do I do? Will I match it? Could I ever match it?”
He garnered a few one-off appearances here and there, some voiceovers, a couple of roles in minor projects that never really made much of a splash. Every now and then he’d pop up in little roles in big movies like Scream and The Waterboy.
But despite his enormous success as the Fonz, he never did match it. Winkler went from being at the pinnacle of his career to barely being able to work in it at all. He became so strongly identified with the character that no one could see him any other way.
The Roller Coaster of a Creative Career
Like acting, when you strive for a major goal in your writing career and finally reach it, it can seem as if you’ve made it. The golden doors of publishing are so notoriously hard to pass through that once you do you think you’re in the club, from now on one of the VIPs and luminaries who operate behind that door and finally do what they love for a living.
And yet our industry hardly ever works that way. Once upon a time getting through the door in the publishing world was indeed the first rung on the ladder, and authors could expect to spend many years slowly building a career and a readership. Now it often seems that publishing revolves around the shiny new thing, and once you’re through the golden doors you get one shot to dazzle, and if you fail to, they kick you right back out (unless you come back in disguise—like with a pen name—or through a side entrance, by switching genres).
Or maybe you get through the doors and do start climbing that ladder, but your editor leaves your publishing house and the new editor doesn’t seem that enthusiastic about you, or your publisher closes its doors, or your sales start to dwindle and they let you go.
What do you do when the field where you’ve had some success no longer seems to want you?
Maybe you indie-published and were making bank back in the glory days when working the ads and algorithms could yield admirable sales, but changes in those results have seen your income steadily dwindling.
What do you do when you realize your success wasn’t the first step up a continuous ladder, but simply a plank in the path that you stepped onto and then over—back down to earth? What do you do when the field where you’ve had some success no longer seems to want you?
Reinventing a Creative Career
Henry Winkler was lucky enough to find an adviser who helped him prepare for an uncertain future. They started a production company together and began developing projects. “I said, ‘I can’t do that. I know nothing about business. I’m dyslexic,’ Winkler, who has indeed battled dyslexia his whole life, told his partner. “And he said, ‘You’ll learn.’”
And Winkler did—at least as much as he could. And where he couldn’t, he got help. “There were things about being a producer I could do. And the other things, I found people who could do it better.” He produced and directed dozens of projects, including producing the original MacGyver TV show and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
He also started writing children’s stories to help other kids with dyslexia, which eventually turned into three successful book series.
And after a while—a long while—better acting roles started trickling back in: He had success doing voice work for animated shows. A recurring role on the successful TV show Out of Practice. Finally he had a real break on Arrested Development, brought in for a single day’s work and once again creating such a popular character that he wound up becoming a series regular for five years.
He continued writing books, becoming a New York Times bestseller for his children’s series. He kept producing and directing. Eventually he landed the role of acting coach Gene Cousineau on Bill Hader’s show Barry, which became an unexpectedly huge hit and netted Winkler his first Emmy award—more than fifty years after the smash success of his Happy Days debut.
Through it all, he lived his life with his wife of nearly fifty years and his three kids, creating a reputation for himself as the nicest man in show business, kind and generous with his time and attention.
I read and loved Winkler’s memoir, Being Henry, thinking how healthy his attitude toward his creative career is. When reflecting on the wild ups and downs of his career, Winkler repeatedly comes back to a single idea: He is grateful.
And I’m struck by his extraordinary resilience. He has experienced the highest highs and some of the lowest lows of a creative career, and yet here he is at age 79 having spent his entire life doing the things he loves and pursuing his creativity.
Stay at the Table
What I think has made him so successful is that Winkler stays light on his feet. Rather than setting his mind on a single path for his career, he adapted whenever he had to. If he couldn’t find work in front of the camera, he made it for himself behind it. When he couldn’t get hired to act in other people’s stories, he started writing his own.
His path took him away from the thing he thought was his passion, and led him to other pursuits he didn’t even realize might be—until he felt pushed to do them because he couldn’t do the thing he thought he really wanted to do.
Henry Winkler created opportunities for himself by being open to possibilities. By being willing to define creative fulfillment in more than just one narrow way. And by never giving up.
When Winkler talks about his career, it’s not with bitterness or regret, but that boundless, genuine gratitude that he’s been able to pursue the artistic life he wanted to. But in no small part he created those opportunities for himself by being open to possibilities. By being willing to define creative fulfillment in more than just one narrow way.
And by never giving up. “I see myself as that toy with sand in the bottom…and you punch it and it goes down, and it comes right back to center,” he says in his Smartless interview. “And then eventually what I learned is…a lot of people will say no, but if you just stay at the table long enough, somebody is going to say yes.”
Darlings, no one promises us creatives an easy road. It’s full of challenge, obstacles both within and without, so many factors far beyond our control that can affect the course of our career.
And yet we don’t have to just be dinghies buffeted about on the waves. We can chart our own course, navigate into friendlier seas, steer our vessel anywhere in all the vast ocean of creative possibility that we are willing to explore.
No matter what obstacles you may face in your career, it’s never jumped the shark as long as you keep finding ways to pursue the things you love, creative projects that fulfill you. Stay at that table until someone says yes—and if no one does, find ways to say yes for yourself.
Authors, I’d love to hear about challenges you’ve faced, low points, failures—and how you pushed through them and reignited or redirected your creative career. What keeps you going when the going gets tough?
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19 Comments. Leave new
What a gorgeously inspiring post!! Thank you x
Thanks, Syl!
Thank you, Tiffany for this inspiring post. The message is what I need at this time as I pursue finding an agent for my first novel. In the past few days, I’ve wondered about leaving the completed manuscript sitting on the bedside table and just consider it a book I’ve written for me. But then that little voice, the one that told me years ago that I have a story to tell, says, You will regret it if you don’t do everything you can to get it published. So, I continue, and as I query agent after agent, I’m now pursuing the path of copy editor (currently working on getting my certificate). This isn’t the path I envisioned when I began writing my novel five years ago, but, hopefully, it will be a path toward my end goal. One thing I do know: I have to try. If I don’t, there is no chance to succeed. And who knows, as Henry Winkler had found a career behind the camera was an unknown passion, perhaps copy editor will bring the same satisfaction to me that writing a novel has brought me.
I’m so glad you’re listening to that little voice, Samantha. One of my favorite sayings is, You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.
And as to pursuing copyediting, coincidentally that’s what got me into my current career as a dev editor–which has turned out to be my greatest passion, much more than writing was. Even if you don’t have that same result, I hope you enjoy copyediting–I always did. It appeals to the logic-and-order side of me, and always felt fun, even if technical. Good luck!
Thank you!
I love your summation of Winkler’s resilience: “he created those opportunities by being open to possibilities…being willing to define creative fulfillment in more than just one narrow way.”
I sell only one copy of my memoir per month, and the developmental editor of my dreams suggested I find beta readers and revise again before she’ll consider my manuscript. But by following that advice, I have an actor and a career university librarian reading the manuscript now. The latter said she felt honored to read for me and asked if I would give her a copy of my memoir as compensation rather than donating $1/page to the charity of her choice as I had suggested. This felt hugely affirming and kept me smiling for days!
I work on craft via conferences, webinars, and reading books by publishing experts (finished Intuitive Editing last week and began The Intuitive Author yesterday). By engaging with regional writers and reading current materials, I reframe disappointment into determination and optimism.
Love this, Lee: ” I reframe disappointment into determination and optimism.” We can’t avoid disappointment–it’s a normal part of life, a normal reaction and feeling to things not turning out as we hope. But we don’t have to let it derail us. That’s what struck me about Henry Winkler’s path too–that sheer practical dogged determination to move forward in whatever way was open to him. Thanks for sharing your approach!
Good gosh, I remember Happy Days. I also was pleased to discover that I like Henry Winkler the man far more than I ever did his iconic character. Thank you for sharing this, it landed as heartfelt inspiration.
I missed out on college after high school, but found my way there fourteen years later. While in college, I discovered two things. The first was that I despised my major. The second was that I could write. I’d loved writing since my mid teens, but it was at the university that praise from professors gave it new meaning.
In 2000, I began developing a fantasy world while writing epic stories in it. They were kinda not that good. I also wrote more personal stories on the side. My ambition was a publishing deal for my fantasy. Then, life went sideways and I lost almost a decade.
When I emerged on the other side, I was no longer the person of a decade before, my perspectives and dreams different. In 2015, I reworked that world, scrapped any ambitions of publishing deals and epic fantasy (a poor fit for me), and instead wrote the kind of stories that touched my heart in that fantasy world. I’ve at last begun self-publishing, but without any great expectations.
I don’t know what’s next, or even if there is a next, but I love what I do and am grateful for every minute I spend doing it. That, all along, was the true dream.
Christina, this is lovely. Honestly I can’t think of a more foundational fulfilling result from a creative career than what you describe–loving what you do and being grateful for all of it. Whatever results we may achieve might be gratifying and rewarding in many ways, but it’s the day-by-day process of our creative work that’s the vast majority of it, and if that’s not satisfying and fulfilling, none of the rest seems like it matters very much. Thanks for sharing this–and for your kind words about the post.
Thank you! I loved this post. I have an accountability partner who is an actor (and a writer), and she was expressing doubts today about not landing roles. You’ve inspired us both! Thank you! P.S. After finishing your craft book, I’ve started your new book, and I’m grateful for them both!
That makes me happy to hear–on all counts! 🙂 I’m happy the books are useful to you, Sylvia. Good luck with your writing–and for your friend with her acting.
Fonz jumped the shark on water skis, not a motorcycle
That’s right! I remembered the ski jump but forgot he was actually skiing. In his leather jacket, though–that I remember. 🙂 Thanks, Sara.
What? Henry Winkler has continued to be around, most notably as the quirky acting coach Gene Cousineau in the HBO series “Barry, also starring Bill Hader. He received 4 EMMY nominations (2018-2023] and one win (2018] for the role. The shark is alive! I had to laugh when I saw that it took him an entire month to get his first acting gig. Poor baby. Most actors struggle for years and come away with a resume full of credits like Juror #6 on Law & Order. Jenna Fischer was on the verge of giving up after 8 years of roles like that when her agent begged her to go to one last audition… to play a receptionist on The Office. Persistence does pay off!
It does, for sure! Winkler’s early credits, post-Happy Days, are underwhelming, but like you, I love his determination and resilience that kept him in the game until he could land all his later rewarding work–and the flexibility that branched him out in his pursuits. I always love a splashy second act like that. Thanks for the comment, Claudia.
Yep, I grew up watching Happy Days. Thanks for sharing this inspiring story about Winkler. Another book I am adding to my read list.
Out of necessity or choice, I have had to reinvent myself more times than I can count. Looking back on it now after reading your piece, I can appreciate that I just wasn’t willing to give up, to roll over and say I quit. I was determined to survive. So, I am reinventing myself again as I follow my lifelong passion for writing, but now with the desire to share. It’s definitely a scary step for me. I’m not shooting for the stars or even the best-seller lists. My hope is that the words I write will find the hearts they need to and provide comfort in some way, as so many writers and authors have done for me.
“Change or die” is another of my frequent mantras, and I mean it in the ways you say, Emily–that I’m always willing to reinvent, reconfigure, reapproach, and rethink. Like you, I think it’s why I’ve always manage to adapt and thrive.
I love that you’re ready to share your work–I hope it finds the readers and reactions you hope for!
Posts like this keep me going. Thanks for the heavy dose of inspiration today, Tiffany. I was lucky enough to meet Henry Winkler way back in the 1980s on the Paramount lot, when one of the parents (a producer) in my middle school youth group took us on a tour. We ran into Winkler and he was so incredibly friendly and kind. I will always remember that moment. This is one of those stories we all need to read from time to time.
I love that you met Winkler! And that he was as kind and friendly as everyone seems to say he is. He seems very genuine, and in listening to interviews or reading his book I do get that predominant sense of gratitude from him–about his career, his life, family, everything. It’s refreshing.
It’s good to hear when posts hit a chord, Cate–thanks for the comment (and the compliment!).