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On being back with the NBC family

No old ghosts, just new challenges

I have a few thoughts about new beginnings and facing up to challenges: This isn't the first time I have worked at Rockefeller Center. 

When I left here back in 1991, after my stint on the “Today” Show didn‘t go the way anybody planned, I was pretty much a basket case. I couldn‘t even come here to see the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center without getting this lump in my stomach. 

But fast forward to today-- back at 30 Rock, which is what the locals here call it, in the exact same studio where I began. Somebody around here asked, “Isn't it weird being back?”

The truth is, it isn’t: There aren‘t any old ghosts roaming around the halls.  It's just a lot of really nice colleagues it‘s nice to reconnect with. 

Taking on a new show at a time when the competition is more fierce than ever on television is pretty daunting, but most of us have a comfort zone—a place in our daily lives where the routine is old and familiar and easy and we like to stay there. But if you didn‘t take on challenges, if you didn‘t step out of that cushy comfort zone, how boring life would be!  The Chinese have a curse: They say “May you live in interesting times.” But to me, the bigger curse would be if life were boring. 

I hope that you find this hour on television to be a time that you find interesting and fun and I hope that whatever challenge comes your way in life, that you grab it with both hands and give it your best shot.