Stephen Colbert’s Lesson On Failure: You Have To Learn To Love The Bomb

Stephen Colbert’s Lesson On Failure: You Have To Learn To Love The Bomb

Life is filled with moments of success and triumph, but it’s also riddled with failures that feel like they couldn’t be any worse. Take it from funnyman Stephen Colbert, and learn to revel in those moments.

Photo by Anders Krusberg / Peabody Awards.

You probably know Colbert as the former host of The Colbert Report, past correspondent on The Daily Show and future host of Late Night, but at one point he was just a young performer with the Second City improv comedy troupe. In a recent interview with GQ, Colbert explained the most important lesson he ever received from his director Jeff Michalski right before his first professional show:

“‘You have to learn to love the bomb.’ It took me a long time to really understand what that meant. It wasn’t ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get it next time.’ It wasn’t ‘Laugh it off.’ No, it means what it says. You gotta learn to love when you’re failing… The embracing of that, the discomfort of failing in front of an audience, leads you to penetrate through the fear that blinds you. Fear is the mind killer.”

You may not be performing improv comedy on stage, but you’re improvising every moment of your life. Those times when you’re bombing are the most defining moments in your life. Accept it, embrace it, and learn to love it, because you’ll bomb again. Are you going to walk off the stage or make sure that the show goes on?

The Late, Great Stephen Colbert [GQ via Business Insider]


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