you have to pay attention to your life because it is speaking to you all the
time and the bumps in the road and the failures that pointed me in a
new direction and led me to a path made clear that is what I'm wishing for you
today your own path made clear and I know that there is a lot of anxiety a
lot about what the future holds and how much money you're gonna make but your
anxiety does not contribute one iota to your progress I'm here to tell you it
does the opposite look at how many times you worried and you were upset and you
didn't think you were gonna make it through the block I got that text a
couple months ago and here you are today you made it and I'm here to tell you
that you're going to be more than okay so take a deep breath with me right now
and repeat this everything is always working out for me I want to hear it
everything is always working out for me that's my mantra make it yours
everything is always working out for me because it is and it has and it will
continue to be as you Forge and discover your own path your purpose is to do what
you have to do until you can do what you want to do so here's the truth for years
I had a job and through that job doing a lot of things that I actually didn't
want to do I got demoted and discovered by life's calling so I was on the air as
a reporter my job ended when I was 28 years old but I've been working in radio
got my first job in radio at 16 was hired in television at 19
and it was a job because every day I felt like I don't know if this is really
what I'm supposed to be doing but my father was like you gonna keep that job
so when I was 28 it wasn't working out for me on the news because I was too
emotional I go to cover stories and cry because people lost their houses or lost
their children I was told that I was going to be taken off the evening news
and put on a talk show that was a demotion for me at the time that
actually worked out for me so I would like to say that many times many times
there are things that look like failure in your life and I want to clear up
because four years at every graduation I've said there's no such thing as
failure well it is I've said it's no such thing as failure it's just like
pointing you into a different direction it does it indeed does but in the moment
when you fail it really feels bad and it's embarrassing and it's bad and it's
going to happen to you if you keep living but I guarantee you it also will
pass and you will be fine why because everything is always working out for you
so I realize this when I was in the struggle of my life I tried to build a
network at the same time I was still trying to do a show and I did not have
the right leadership everything is about having people in the right positions to
support you and so I had to take a good long look at myself when everything in
the media cuz all of my mistakes are on there evening news or the CNN crawl I
can't do anything privately so in every news story when every story is about
struggle struggle struggle struggle I had to have a talk with myself and say
what is this really about what is this here to show you my favorite question
when in crisis what is this here to teach or show me Jeff Weiner one of
my friends and founder of LinkedIn says that failure is what's going to Humble
you it helps you realize how fleeting success can be at least traditional
measures of success because you realize that to some extent how it is just
beyond your control and you invest less in it in terms of the way you define
yourself success in terms of achieving objectives in terms of manifesting a
mission in terms of manifesting a vision that's all good especially if what you
do can create good in the world but to the extent that you start to
define yourself through traditional measures of success to the extent that
that's your source of self-esteem you're destined to be unhappy because you
cannot control it Jack can fill chicken Soup for the Soul
another one of my thought leaders that I admire says the greatest wound we've all
experienced is somehow being rejected for being our authentic self and as a
result of that we then try to be what were not to get approval love protection
safety money whatever that is and the real need for all of us
really is to reconnect with the essence of who we really are
reown all the disowned parts of ourselves whether it's our emotions our
spirituality whatever we all go around hiding parts of ourselves he says he was
with a Buddhist teacher a number of years ago and that teacher said here's
the secret if you were to meditate for 20 years this is where you'd finally get
to just be your self but be all of you so I've made a living not a living but a
real life from being true to myself using the energy of my personality to
actually serve the purpose of my soul and that purpose I'm here to tell you
gets revealed to you daily it is not just one thing it is the
thread that is connecting the dots of everything that you do so when I first
started television at 19 as I said I was just happy to have a job but later
through experience trial error some failures recognized that my true purpose
was to be an inspiration and a force for good to allow people to see the best of
themselves through the work and the stories that we were able to tell and so
that becomes my legacy your legacy is every life that you touch and that I
repeat everywhere because it's true it's not one thing it's everything and the
most important thing is how you touch other people's lives every day you're
carving out the path even when it looks like you're not all your actions are
creating equal and opposite reactions which is the third law of motion in
physics what you put out is coming back how you think and what you do is already
being done unto you that is my religion I live by that you have to act as if
it's possible to radically transform the world and you have to do that all the
time
you