When Jerry Seinfeld was a struggling comedian at the beginning of his career, he had to find a job to help make ends meet. He once told People Magazine that back in 1976 he got a job as a telemarketer for a couple of weeks. But he wasn’t delivering the normal sales pitch over the phone, Seinfeld was selling light bulbs.

Now anyone that has ever received one of those types of phone calls knows that a lot of different items are pushed for sale. But who would buy light bulbs over the phone? Seinfeld said “I was just looking for some grocery money. I hated the job. It was all lying (and) outrageous prices.” Much like any type of telemarketing scheme.

He went on to a semi-decent comedy career that he turned into one of the highest rated television shows of all time. That show, Seinfeld, was based loosely on his real life as a comedian and it is widely considered the best show of all time. He has done some other work on television and in movies but he hasn’t been able to recapture the magic that happened on that hit show.

Comedy Central named him in 2005 as the 12th Greatest Stand-up Comedian of All Time. That’s a bit of a stretch as he doesn’t even belong in the Top 25. But he certainly came a long way from selling light bulbs over the phone.