The "Law of Compensation" & Stand-Up Comedy

Tipping the Scales in Favor of My Success (Comedy Mindhacks #68)

It may seem odd, but I think about it often because I seem to notice it often: For every good, there’s a bad and for every bad, there’s a good. Put differently: Things in life tend to balance out. Ralph Waldo Emerson called it “The Law of Compensation.” I’ve watched this play out pretty consistently in my comedy career.

The day I got booked for a comedy festival, a partnership I’d spent quite a bit of time building fell apart. One day, when a show got canceled, another one appeared. It nearly always seems to happen. This pattern repeats itself so consistently that I’ve almost stopped being surprised by it.

Like many, I scroll through other comedians’ feeds and, when I do, I see win after win after win: Festival bookings, sold-out shows, big breaks. But what “The Law of Compensation” reminds me of is that I don’t see are the losses that came with all those successes.

I recently congratulated a comedian on landing a gig I’ve been wanting. Instead of letting envy eat at me, I was genuinely happy for him. Even more, I was inspired. And I like learning from inspiring people. So, I asked him how he did it. He told me he’d been hitting walls for six months straight before it happened. Boom! There that “Law” is again. And this has helped me beat the need to compete or compare because, for every visible win I see someone else have, I now assume there are numerous unseen struggles I’m not seeing.

I got barred from a local comedy scene because of my faith, because I’m a Christian. But, in the end, that rejection freed me to start my own monthly show and opened up doors to work with comedians I actually want to collaborate with. The compensation, that is, the good balancing out the bad, wasn’t immediate, but it was inevitable. It happened.

Here’s another thing I realized: I don’t have to wait passively for things to balance themselves out. I can tip the scales by being proactive. I’ve been grinding all year, building my own platform, growing my podcast, expanding my blog, and performing consistently. When I create something no one can take away, I’m not just waiting for compensation, I’m engineering it. In the future, after I’ve built this, hopefully the success scales will tip more consistently in my direction.

Why am I even talking about this? Because many comedians take rejection as a verdict. But because of “The Law of Compensation,” I learned to see it as a redirection. The only time a setback becomes permanent is when I let it be. Shows fall through. Partnerships fail. Scenes reject you. I treat these not as endings but as chances to innovate and create.

I’ve also learned not to subscribe to the mirage that others’ actions determine my destiny. My grind matters more than their gatekeeping. My platform will outlast their permission. My innovation will beat their barriers. Things will balance out. But I get to decide how quickly based on my own mindset and work ethic.

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