Work Hard, Be Kind

It could land you a job with Conan O’Brien

In summer 2004, I inherited my parent’s 20-inch television with wire-hanger rabbit ears. That summer I was unemployed and bored and restless. With nothing better to do and a “new” TV at my disposal, I started watching Late Night.

To put it lightly, I liked that Conan O’Brien fellow.

In 2009, on the floor in front of my TV, I watched the final episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Immediately thereafter, I logged on to my university’s website and officially changed my major from English to Communications.

I’d read somewhere that late-night talk shows wanted interns who majored in Communications.

A year later, again on the floor in front of my TV, I watched the final episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. I think I may have even touched the screen.

Then I went over to my desk, grabbed a piece of paper, and transcribed Conan’s “Work Hard, Be Kind” speech in gray marker.

It’s seen better days, but I today that piece of paper is taped on the wall of my apartment in Los Angeles — where I moved in 2012 after accepting a job at TBS’s CONAN.

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