A year before this speech, O'Brien had lost The Tonight Show in one of the most public career disappointments in television history. He told the Dartmouth graduates that he went from being at the center of the grid to 'lost in the shag carpeting underneath the coffee table supporting the grid.' But adrift and fogbound, he started trying things — a cinnamon beard, social media, a national tour, a blue leather suit, stand-up, an album, a documentary — and it became the most satisfying year of his professional life. There are few things more liberating, he said, than having your worst fear realized.