Hey there. Orianna here from Fortune.
Kunal Nayyar has a life most would describe as a dream. He landed his breakthrough role as Rajesh Koothrappali on The Big Bang Theory at just 26, rose to global fame almost overnight, and went on to earn around $1 million per episode at the height of the show’s success—becoming one of the highest-paid actors on television ever.
Today, the 44-year-old actor has an estimated net worth of $45 million, and a résumé spanning film, television, publishing, and tech. But none of that has insulated him from difficult days.
The star told me he still has tough 16-hour workdays with just six hours of sleep before being called out to film on set again. When he’s not acting, he’s also running a string of businesses, including Good Karma Productions and the document-storage app IQ121.
And when it all gets too much, Nayyar doesn’t reach for motivational podcasts or productivity hacks. He repeats one word to himself instead: Surrender.
“Sometimes, if I find myself really banging my head against something, and it’s just one of those days where everything’s going wrong, I just tell myself, ‘surrender,’” Nayyar told me.
“Take a breath. Take a pause. Let’s just see what happens.”
The practice is more than simply having a mindful moment. He’s challenging his inner critic.
“Our minds work in such a way where on a difficult day, it keeps going to the worst-case scenario,” the actor explained. “So in those moments, you have to really just look at your mind and say, stop. Take a breath. Surrender to this moment and let’s see what happens.”
Nayyar admits he uses the mantra “quite often, to be honest.” Especially after auditions, in between waiting to hear how you did and trawling the internet to see if someone else got the job—something any job seeker can relate to.
Because in the end, the reality is almost never as bad as your mind made it out to be. And even when it is, you always find a way to get through it.
—Orianna Rosa Royle
Success Associate Editor, Fortune
Got a career tip or dilemma? Get in touch: orianna.royle@fortune.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn, TikTok, X, and Instagram.
