He Has an Interesting Method for Staying Motivated
Long before he became the face of Jeopardy!, Alex Trebek worked on a number of Canadian game shows, none of which really took off. One of the shows Trebek hosted was called Pitfall, in which contestants attempted to cross an eight-section bridge in 100 seconds by correctly answering trivia questions. Pitfall's studio, Catalena Productions, went bankrupt only a year after he was hired. The check Trebek received from the studio for $49,200 bounced.
"It came at a bad time because my father had died and I was in bad, bad straits and could have used the money," Trebek said. Even after his tremendous success, Trebek keeps the $49,200 check framed on his wall to remind him where he came from. To this day, he's never seen a time of the money owed to him.
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