In his commencement speech at Dartmouth College this past weekend, Conan O’Brien is at times hilarious, irreverent, and also very, very poignant. For the most part this is typical Conan tomfoolery, but near the end it takes a serious turn as he talks about failure, changing dreams, and knowing who you are.  Conan has been a little higher on my radar since his final remarks at the end of his time on the Tonight Show caught my attention several months ago. It’s clear that Conan is one of the most intelligent cable talk show hosts out there.

My favorite quote comes at about 21 minutes in: ”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.”

(Parental warning: Conan gets a little coarse at times, so just be prepared for that.)

I just posted a new deck of slides to SlideShare this morning. I’d love some feedback. Let me know what you think.

“If I am to speak for ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour I am ready now.”

– Woodrow Wilson
Discovered in ‘Resonate‘ by Nancy Duarte

“Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.”

Literally: I made this [letter] very long, because I did not have the leisure to make it shorter.
Translation: I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.

– Blaise Pascal, Provincial Letters: Letter XVI, 1657 (English Translation).
Often misattributed to Mark Twain, as well as T.S. Eliot, Cicero, and others.
Source: Wikiquote

“It’s unwise to merely dump a pile of unstructured information into the laps of your audience. They will have the same reaction as if you take a watch apart, fling the pieces at them and say ‘Here’s all you need to make a watch.’ You might get high marks for research and energy, but that is a low-class consolation prize. By doing this you confess that you don’t know what to do with all the stuff you’ve dug up. Audiences expect structure.”

– Henry M. Boettinger

From ‘Moving Mountains: The Art of Letting Others See Things Your Way‘
Discovered in ‘Resonate‘ by Nancy Duarte