I have always admired Conan O’ Brien. I always watch his show when he was still at NBC. In fact, its the only show I watch in NBC. Aside from being a funny guy and one great comedian, he can hit you right through your heart yet you end up laughing at it or yourself. Now finding out he gave a commencement speech to graduating students in Dartmouth College was already hilarious. Watching him, was even more hilarious. I think President Kim of Dartmouth was courageous enough to invite a comedian like Conan to give a commencement speech in which traditionally commencement speeches are supposed to be “serious”.
His speech indeed was hilarious yet it created an impact. He made an important point about being inferior, about the reality out there after college, “that’s right, with your college diploma you now have a crushing advantage over 8 percent of the workforce. I’m talking about dropout losers like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg." He may have said it in very funny way yet we know for fact that that is what reality is after graduation. In fact I consider it a blow to graduates when he started his speech with, “My first job as your commencement speaker is to illustrate that life is not fair. For example, you have worked tirelessly for four years to earn the diploma you’ll be receiving this weekend, and Dartmouth is giving me the same degree for interviewing the fourth lead in Twilight. Deal with it. Another example that life is not fair: if it does rain, the powerful rich people on stage get the tent. Deal with it.”
Although we laugh at it, we know for a fact that there’s truth in it. One thing that made me laugh when he said something as well to the parents of the graduates "Many of you haven’t seen your children in four years. Now you are about to see them every day when they come out of the basement to tell you the WiFi isn’t working". The he went on to say something about failure and quoted Nietzsche, "Nietzsche famously said “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” But what he failed to stress is that IT ALMOST KILLS YOU. Disappointment stings and, for driven, successful people like yourselves it is disorienting. What Nietzsche should have said is “Whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you watch a lot of Cartoon Network and drink mid-price Chardonnay at 11 in the morning." Yet he ended his speech with a really moving message, “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 be a catalyst for profound re-invention” and I totally agree with this. He further said, “ In 2000, I told graduates to not be afraid to fail, and I still believe that. But today I tell you that whether you fear it or not, disappointment will come. The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality.” Read Transcript of Conan's Address
True enough, in life those who really succeed are those people who are willing to fail and be disappointed along the way. Most of the time failure is a defining moment. Its either gonna break or make us and those who succeed leverage on their failure and spring back successful.
Here is Conan’s speech and even if you never went to college, not yet graduating or graduated already, I believe it speaks to all of us who are constantly run by fear. Its about time we finally say goodbye to it. Watch in Youtube
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