How Conan O’Brien Handled His Career Disaster

Conan – Become Your Ideal

Conan O’Brien Explains how his very public failure actually helped him by helping him define himself.

Transcript:

“I experienced a profound and very public disappointment. I did not get what I wanted, and I left a system that had nurtured and helped define me for the better part of 17 years. I went from being in the center of the grid to not only off the grid, but underneath the coffee table that the grid sits on. Lost in the shag carpeting that is underneath the coffee table, supporting the grid. It was the making of a career disaster, and a terrible analogy.

But I have never had more fun, been more challenged, and this is important, had more conviction about what I was doing. How could this be true? Well, it’s simple. There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized. It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. It’s not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound reinvention.”