Embrace the Good and the Bad

While the Jobs speech (separate entry below) is quite serious and high-minded, this one given a while back by Conan O'Brien at his alma mater, Harvard, is decidedly less so (link here). But once you get past the humor and lightheartedness, he does share a nugget that is infinitely more practical and useful to those listening, about the value of taking the good with the bad, of accepting that failure and success go hand in hand, and of not being timid for fear of failure or rejection. In other words, "don't be afraid to fail because failure is a normal part of the process" and "don't be handcuffed by success if you're ready to move on with life even if it means leaving the comfort and safety of the 'cocoon'": I've dwelled on my failures today because, as graduates of Harvard, your biggest liability is your need to succeed. Your need to always find yourself on the sweet side of the bell curve. Because success is a lot like a bright, white tuxedo. You feel terrific when you get it, but then you're desperately afraid of getting it dirty, of spoiling it in any way. I left the cocoon of Harvard, I left the cocoon of Saturday Night Live, I left the cocoon of The Simpsons. And each time it was bruising and tumultuous. And yet, every failure was freeing, and today I'm as nostalgic for the bad as I am for the good.