There is no single action that vaults us into success–only a series of decisions, that may seem unrelated at the time, and continuous effort that define any achievement.
In a recent presentation at UC San Diego, Conan O’Brien suggests from his experience:
My advice is to find out what your passion is and go wherever they’re doing the kind of work you’re passionate about… My first job in show business was getting coffee for Estelle Getty of the ‘Golden Girls.’ So, I would say, work hard, don’t have an attitude, prove you have the ability to do what you want to do, and you will climb up the ladder. That is just how it works.
Mr. O’Brien continued with these words of wisdom:
In my business, a mistake can be the best thing that could happen.
Failure can be our best teacher. Every spring, I listen to Seniors and their parents, who’re disappointed and surprised to receive a denial letter from a college, especially colleges where they expected to be admitted. Often the shock is compounded because the student has achieved at pretty much every other endeavor in their short lifetimes. While a difficult “life lesson” to endure, these “failures”, after a grieving period, can cause us to ask different questions and follow an unexpected course.
We all want an easy, failure free route to everything we desire. (I am no exception.) Only in retrospect, when I’ve had to work and stretch, then the outcome doesn’t matter and I’ve already experienced the success.
Most, if not all innovation/improvement depends on failure, versus continual-and often equally stagnating-success. Failure is the lifeblood of future success.