Don't take yourself too seriously

Whenever someone asks me what's the best advice I ever received, my answer is: "don't take yourself too seriously".

I don't remember a specific moment when someone sat me down and told me: "don't take yourself too seriously, son". But I do remember that this is something I learned from my paternal grandparents and my uncle. They were all extremely successful, yet humble, and always found humour in every situation.

All of this to say that I was delighted when Seinfeld devoted a section to this exact idea in his recent commencement speech at Duke. As always, he said it perfectly and I think it's such important advice. Especially for someone in their early 20's.

Don’t Lose Your Sense of Humor

And this is probably the biggest point I would like to make to you here today regarding humor. I’m going to try and reach across a couple generations here to tell you the most important thing. I am confident that I know about life. I’m 70. I’m done. You are just starting. I only want to help you.

The slightly uncomfortable feeling of awkward humor is okay. It’s not something you need to fix. I totally admire the ambitions of your generation to create a more just and inclusive society. I think it is also wonderful that you care so much about not hurting other people’s feelings and the million and one ways we all do that every second of every day.

It’s lovely to want to fix those things, but, all caps, BUT, what I need to tell you as a comedian, do not lose your sense of humor. You can have no idea at this point in your life how much you are going to need it to get through. Not enough of life makes sense for you to be able to survive it without humor.

And I know all of you here are going to use all of your brains and muscle and soul to improve the world, and I know you’re going to do a bang up job, and when you’re done, as I am now, I bet the world because of you will be a much better place. But it will still not make a whole hell of a lot of sense. It’ll be a better, different, but still pretty insane mess, and it is worth the sacrifice of an occasional discomfort to have some laughs. Don’t lose that.

Even if it’s at the cost of occasional hard feelings, it’s okay. You got to laugh. That is the one thing at the end of your life you will not wish you did less of. Humor is the most powerful, most survival, essential quality you will ever have or need to navigate through the human experience.