I am a huge fan of the show by Bloomberg called Gamechangers.
The show spotlights the lives of people in the business, and social world that have revolutionized an industry, business, or society.
Yesterday I was on the treadmill watching Gamechangers: Jon Stewart. While on the surface I never thought I could find relevant content from his life to all of ours, I was seriously wrong.
Jon Stewart was named a couple years ago one of the top 4 most trusted people in the news world. That’s right, trusted. Who would have thought a comedy central host of a satirical show could have that title. But not only trusted. Viacom, the parent company of comedy central, road his coattails out of impending financial trouble and he was the savior of the dying network comedy central.
Quick overview of John Stewart’s beginnings:
1989: began comedy career
1991: Hosted Short Attention Span Theater
1992: Short Attention Span Theater Cancelled
1993: Lost to Conan Obrien as replacement for Letterman on The Late Show
1994-1999: Numerous box office failures (Half Baked, Death to Smoochy)
1999: becomes host of The Daily Show
A few obvious observations.
John Stewart experienced rejection:
- as a stand-up comic he interviewed for Letterman’s job and didn’t get it
- he tried out for Saturday Night Live and was rejected
John Stewart Failed when he was accepted:
- in 1993 The John Stewart Show never took off and was canceled just a year later
- Experienced numerous failures in movies
- given hosting opportunities and they flopped (Short Attention Span Theater, You wrote it You watch it)
Over 10 years John Stewart experienced many set back and failures until he finally was given the opportunity to star in a role that appears as if it was made just for him.
I hope we all can learn from this TV personality and continue to press on toward our goal through hardships and setbacks. I can imagine if I was given a show with my name in the headline and it totally bombed I may think that I missed my shot, but he kept pushing. For 10 years he kept pushing past rejection and failure. That’s a long time!
What setbacks are you currently facing on the road to your dreams?
Are you giving up or pushing forward?
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