I owe my career to Mr Jobs. It was his innovations that allowed me to work as a Sigma 7 Analyst for Motorola back in 1991. That job begat others. I often think that Apple really started it all – everyone else just copied what they did.
A friend of mine found Mr Job’s Commencement Speech to the 2005 graduating class of Stanford University. In it, he tells three stories from his life. Just three stories. Connecting the dots, Love and Loss, and Life and Death. Three stories with very profound messages. The video is only 15 minutes long and totally worth watching.
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” ~ Steve Jobs
I want to be a (Fill in the blank) _____________________________ (in my circle these days the blank is usually comic, but anything can go here)
what is the best advice you can give me?
My advice? Cheesy as it may sound, Be More Like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh.
Be one of a Kind. – Find whatever it is that makes you uniquely you and bring it with everything you have.
Be a real Friend. – He may have gotten on their nerves a time or two, but in the end they celebrated friendships together. Don’t let petty squabbles, busy schedules or misunderstandings get in the way of friendship.
Be willing to try new things. – Tiggers definitely don’t like honey, but he did at least try. Who knows by trying new things, you may surprise yourself by finding new things you do like.
Be able to Bounce. – The ability to bounce, whether it be forward, backward, up, down or just bouncing back is vital in this life. There will be obstacles to bounce over, disappointments to bounce back from, and goals that may require some bounce to reach.
And most importantly I leave you with this thought, it’s not what you do for a living that matters, it’s what you do for a life.
Live it with bounce.
This post written by Deana O’Hara, for Redemption’s Heart, August 14, 2011. All rights reserved.
Edited to add on April 23 – my favorite new show of the season “the Defenders” has been cancelled by CBS. That stinks. I didn’t even DVR it, so now I’ll never see the episodes that I missed. It’s a sad sad day in my house.
News has it CBS is moving them from Wednesday night at 10 pm to Friday at 8 (7 Central) Seriously? crap, there goes my favorite show. That’s right CBS is moving their new hit show The Defenders (10 Million Viewers strong) to Fridays starting on February 8.
Yes, CBS tends to do well on Fridays – not that I would know because honestly, I don’t watch TV on Fridays. Granted that is due in large part to there is nothing good on TV on Friday nights. Besides,Friday is date night so who in heaven’s name are they trying to recruit here? My teenagers aren’t even home on Fridays.
According to the Detroit News a lot of shows are changing time slots. NBC is planning on moving Law and Order SVU to their 10 pm time slot on Wednesdays and Fox moved Human Target to the same time slot. I’m speculating that is why CBS moved my show. SVU and Human Target are tough to compete against. So maybe – just maybe CBS knows what they are doing.
And so we have it, the Defenders will be on at 8 (7 Central) starting on February 8 and Blue Bloods (with Tom Selleck) will be on at 10 (9 Central). I’m hoping they don’t plan on keeping Medium in the middle at 9 because that will be the death of all three. Seriously, I cannot imagine viewers staying for Medium – but who knows, maybe they will.
On a positive note, Dan Aykroyd is joining the cast of The Defenders for a short stint – that reason alone is worth following the show to Fridays. I love him. I hope they survive.
On a more neurotic note:
I’ve been checking my stats and it seems my post about my Jim Belushi dream is in the lead. Great. I have ONE weird dream about Jim Belushi and make the crazy mistake of writing about it, and suddenly people from Albania, Chicago, and Canada are on that one entry, daily — uhm, is there something I should know? That one piece is getting more hits than the rest of my stuff.
Look – I don’t know him – the closest I’ve come to knowing him or any of the other SNL guys is I sat in the parking lot of Second City for two hours back in 1987 and chickened out of auditioning – that’s it. I’m a neurotic former-coward trying to make good by refusing to chicken out of anything else today and I’m having a blast doing it.
I’ve spent the past ten years working behind the scenes of social awareness fundraisers, promoting other artists, writing and selling jokes, and MCing events. I’ve never been the headliner – I never thought of being a headliner until I met another comic six years ago and she talked me into getting over myself – and going for it.
I drive two hours each way for five-minute gigs and open mics.
I stand in line for hours at a time in cattle-call auditions.
I send in photos for commercial bids.
I talk to agents and casting directors.
I beg.
That’s just how it is. And I love it.
When it comes to Jim or anyone else from SNL, I’m just a fan – the kind of fan that would squeak, blush, and throw up if I ever met him or anyone else from the good old days of SNL . And if my track record is indicative of anything, I’d probably have a wardrobe malfunction as well.
Charlie goes back to college tomorrow. I’ve enjoyed my month off with my family and now it’s time to get back to daily life. Have a great weekend ya’ll.
I’ve heard it said that when God closes one door, He always opens another; but it’s hell in the hallway.
I’m in a hallway. A waiting room between finding something inside my body that does not belong, and finding answers. My doctor’s are working on a referral, the referral is working on insurance approval, and I am stuck waiting.
I don’t wait well.
I worry.
I google.
That makes me worry more.
Obsessive/compulsive types who are prone to worry — aka, people like me — should not be allowed to Google. Seriously. There are nasty things on google. Things that talk about survival rates, and stages, and symptoms and …
Oh how I hate the hallway.
This was Jeff’s first Easter without his Mom — he misses her and I worry that I ruined Easter for everyone by going to the hospital.
He had no one to call. And I worry about him.
I’ve decided it’s just a fibroid. A very big fibroid. And I’ve decided that since my white blood count was good, I must be right. Still. I have something that does not belong and I want it to go away.
So, since I have this thing growing inside of me, I decided to name it.
That only seems right. I named it Fred.
Jeff doesn’t like the name Fred and suggested we name it Georgetta.
Should I be worried about that? Laughter.
I told him I was thinking about making a sock puppet named Georgetta.
He didn’t laugh.
Now it’s HIS turn to worry about my coping skills.
I’m coping just fine. I just like it when he raises his right eyebrow up really high and rubs his beard.
THAT is funny!
I hate the hallway.
What do you guys do in the hallway? How do you keep from worrying when you can’t control the situation?
Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn in The Banger Sisters
Call me Susan and color me beige. My 15-year-old self showed up this week, and she has a bone to pick with me. It seems I’d kept her locked away in a tattered old box in the bottom of my closet and she isn’t happy about it.
How come you never told anyone about me?
What are you talking about, lot’s of people know about you.
Really. Do they know we were in Sweden?
Sorta, yeah. They know we were in Sweden. But that was 30 years ago. A lot’s changed since then. I have a life. I have a husband and kids and responsibilities.
What about your husband and sons, do they know about me?
Are you kidding. No.
WHAT?
Oh don’t get all hurt. They know I went to Sweden when I was in high school, but that’s all they know.
Did you tell them about Grimslov?
Not exactly.
The hockey players from Yale?
Dear God no.
Why not?
I was 15. I made a complete and total blithering idiot out of myself. No one needs to know about that. It was pathetic.
No it wasn’t. It was sweet. See I have pictures.
I’d glare at her, but she’s too busy digging through our box of stuff she found buried in my closet. She is right about the hockey players though. They changed the dynamic of Grimslov when they showed up. Everyone looked up to them. They were college men afterall, with nice cologne (Polo), cigars, and brandy. I thought they were the coolest thing I’d ever laid eyes on. I had a huge crush on one of them and went out of my way to get him to notice me. He handled it very well and was really sweet about it. I just wish I’d remembered that before I found him on facebook. Now, I’m just embarassed.
What about this? Remember the castle at Malmo and that statue of Michelangelo’s David?
Give me that! No one needs to see a photo of me and the statue of David. I’m pretty sure that had nothing to do with y appreciation for art.
The ski trip? Don’t you remember those lumberjacks in drag? One of them tried to kiss you and you kicked him in the shins with your ski boots, remember?
NO.
Sure you do, Duffy came to your defense and got a black eye. I’m sure you have a picture of him in here somewhere.
Oh shut up already.
What about the time you saw the French Lieutenant’s Woman? You drank wine for the first time that night and spent the whole movie in the bathroom throwing up. Or what about the time you got stranded and had to hitchhike back. Two Iranians picked you up and you lied and said you were from Australia. You even got engaged for a short time, remember?
No. No. And No. If I drink wine will you go away?
You can try, but I doubt it.
Darn. She was right.
When did you start putting the hyphen in anal-retentive? You used to be so much fun. We lived life together. You never cared what anyone thought. You fell in love and pursued it with your whole heart – you threw yourself into everything you did every day you were there.
I threw myself at boys and put myself in dangerous situations.
You did more than that. We did more than that. Did you at least tell people about meeting the King? That was cool.
I insulted him.
So what. You met him didn’t you? Think about it. We came from the wrong side of the tracks and yet here we are meeting the king. How cool is that?
Yeah, that was cool. But the picture is all faded. No one will be able to make it out.
So tell them about it. Paint a word picture. If you won’t tell people about me, will you at least tell people about meeting him?
I’ll think about it.
Cool. Then maybe later we’ll talk about the Lumberjack.
This post written by Deana O’Hara for Redemption’s Heart. All rights reserved. A friend from Sweden found me a few weeks ago and I am having fun going through my box of memories. Over time, I’ll blog about different parts of my trip and how those events impacted who I am today. It’s that or listen to my 15-year-old self continue to give me a hard time.
Deana O'Hara - Speaker, Comedian, Writer 