An Endurance Game

For those who weren't sufficiently motivated or inspired by Mark Burnett's story yesterday, this is for you.
In a piece posted on MSN.com today, Kiplinger's Personal Finance shares stories of how a dozen people--from a singer to a student athlete--made their first million (italics intentional).
I was drawn immediately to the "struggling actor" story of Scott Patterson, star of the "Gilmore Girls" TV series (NOT to be confused with Scott Peterson). Not only did he have to wait 14 years for his big break, but his filmography doesn't even start until 1993--when he was 35! I have to tell you, for those who've hit that 30-year mark and wondered that the hell they're doing with their lives, stories of successful 30-something career transitions are a real source of comfort and inspiration.
Patterson started as a baseball player with big league ambitions. He pitched for several seasons in the minor leagues during the early to mid-1980s and then--success!--he was traded to our own New York Yankees...where he lasted about--oh, maybe a game or two. And then he was cut. (In a 2001 interview, he puts it this way: "It was really bad. I got to tell ya, I threw hard but I had no idea where it was going. I once delivered a pitch to the third base coach. So... you can tell I have a bad sense of direction.")
By the time he decided to start his second career--moving to New York to study acting--he was 28. He moved between NY and L.A. He got bit parts in commercials to try and pay the rent. Sometimes he had to crash with friends or sleep in his 1966 Pontiac Le Mans. "I knew I would have to really, really earn this," Patterson said in the story. "It turned out to be an endurance game."
And, in the end, he won. In 1999, he read for the part of Luke Danes, the male lead in "Gilmore Girls." And he got the role. As the show became more popular, he became more well-known and more wealthy. Now he's making enough to help pay for a new wing at a hospital in Baltimore.
Patterson's advice: "Even when you've been pounded for 20 years, don't give up. If you stay in the game long enough, you get lucky."
Fabulous. By that measure, I've only got 14 years to go until I "get lucky."