* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin

Here are three thought-provoking comments that I heard from *Asi Tzobel*, the actor seen on a popular Israeli children’s program, in a Zoom presentation yesterday:

“I remember when I began to act and I had my first 100 views on YouTube. *100 views!* Today this sounds ridiculous, but do you know how I celebrated? I think this is significant. I don’t care how many views other people get what’s important is that I celebrate my own success, no matter how little — in comparison to others — it may seem to be.”

“It’s not the most talented who succeeds, but the most persistent. *Talent may bring you to the summit, but without persistence you won’t stay there.* The idea is to continue to study, to exert yourself, to put in the work.”

“At the start of the pandemic, I hid from my children in the kitchen and I shed tears. All my performances were canceled and I saw nothing promising on the horizon. *As long as I focused only on myself, I found no solution to my predicament. The moment I started to think about others, about the audience, and less about myself, everything changed.* I understood how difficult it was for everyone locked down at home, so we performed a Hanukkah play on Zoom that was a huge success. But this happened only when I stopped thinking about my own distress and started to think about the plight of other people.”

Thank you, Asi. I believe these thoughts are highly beneficial not only to other actors, but to the rest of us too.