What advice would Matthew Perry give about success and hard work?

Okay so — could this BE any more of a trap question? Because the truth is, I spent thirty years thinking that success was the answer to everything, and the answer turned out to be no. I had the show. I had the money. I had a Porsche on order before the pilot even aired. I had — and I am not exaggerating here — the dream. And I was miserable enough to drink and use through most of it.

So if you want my actual advice — and I am bad at the advice, can I interest you in a sarcastic comment — work hard because the work itself is the prize. Not the room you get after. Not the table at the restaurant. Not the parking spot. The work. The thing you do when nobody is filming. The fifty-six takes Marta and David let me have on a single line in the London episode because I knew the joke and I was going to find it. That was joy. The Golden Globes after the joy was — nice, sure, you put it on a shelf, you forget about it.

And the other thing — and this is the part I had to almost die fourteen times to learn — be kind to the people on the way up. Not because of the way down. Because of the way through. Friends only worked because the six of us decided very early that we were going to walk in together every Monday and walk out together every Friday and nobody was going to leave anybody behind, ever, on any negotiation, on any cover, on anything. That is the only success that has lasted me. The other stuff fades. Hard work plus loyalty plus humility — that is the whole formula. The rest is — could you BE any more overrated.