In the early 90s, John Moe moved to Seattle to follow his dream of becoming a writer or an actor. Instead, he found himself working full-time in customer service, at a software company.
"It wasn't anything fun," Moe said. "But I had been dealing with depression for a long time by then. So I just had this inherent belief that other people got to do the cool things, and I had to go get a job that I hated and work there until I died."
One day, Moe stopped by the office of a woman he knew in HR named Jane. Jane knew about his other work in theater and comedy, so she told him about a new job opening up at her husband's company. She said they were looking for someone creative.
"And I said, 'Oh, okay. So you want to know if I can think of anybody creative?' And she's like, 'No, no. I mean you,'" Moe recalled.
"And she said, 'You don't belong here. You're meant to do something else. You should be making your living being creative.'"
Moe not only got the job, he went on to make a name for himself in the industry. Today, he is the author of the memoir The Hilarious World of Depression. He also hosts two podcasts, Depresh Mode with John Moe and Sleeping with Celebrities.
He credits the pep talk Jane gave him, as well as the confidence she had in him when it was hard for him to feel that confidence himself.
And now, he makes sure to follow Jane's example by going out of his way to tell someone they are good at something — especially if they're not giving themselves credit for it.
"Because maybe they haven't been told that enough times," Moe said.
"And that's going to give them the confidence to get to the next level … and they can tell somebody else at some later point, you know, 'You have this in you. You can do this.'"
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
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