Content material warning: This put up discusses suicidal ideation.
In 2009, he landed his first talk-show internet hosting gig on Late Night time with Jimmy Fallon, and by 2014, he’d taken over because the host of The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon, the place he stays right now.
It’s protected to say that SNL was Jimmy’s huge break, and up to now, he’s talked about how being solid on the NBC present was fairly actually his solely ambition in life. Now, showing as a visitor on the Diary of a CEO podcast this week, the talk-show host opened up about his next-level devotion to attaining his SNL dream.
“I might rewatch it and research it,” he recalled. “I virtually turned so obsessed in highschool that I couldn’t actually hang around with anybody whereas I watched the present ’trigger I didn’t prefer it if anybody didn’t just like the present.”
Jimmy was rejected when he first auditioned for SNL in 1997, however was happily invited again a 12 months later. In 2011, Jimmy advised Rolling Stone that he was so fixated on being solid on SNL that he genuinely felt he had nothing else to dwell for if he didn’t make it occur. “I keep in mind saying to myself, ‘If I don’t make it on Saturday Night time Stay earlier than I’m 25, I’m going to kill myself,’” he mentioned on the time. “It’s loopy. I had no different plan. I didn’t have mates, I didn’t have a girlfriend, I didn’t have something happening. I had my profession, that was it.”
In his Diary of a CEO interview, host Steven Bartlett introduced up this quote and requested Jimmy if he actually meant what he mentioned all these years in the past. “Yeah, I did,” he replied, earlier than giving some perception into his staunchly devoted mindset. “However, once more, I knew that I used to be gonna be on Saturday Night time Stay, so I assume I didn’t actually imply it.”
By 24, Jimmy had made his SNL debut and was already solidifying himself as a star — though that didn’t imply he wasn’t dealing with difficulties. When requested what he wasn’t “ready” for throughout his early years on the present, Jimmy acquired brutally trustworthy about having to regulate to criticism and suggestions.
“Getting rejection. Getting your sketches lower. Being advised you’re not humorous,” he mentioned. “You assume that it’s simply going to be, ‘Oh, that is cool. Everybody will probably be nice.’ However then, not everybody’s rooting for you. Some individuals need you to fail.”
Notably, he mentioned one of the vital troublesome issues to take care of was the belief that there have been heaps of people that may not like him. “I hate it. I would like everybody to love me,” he mentioned. “I can’t stand it. I am going, ‘Oh, my gosh. What can I do to make you want me?’ I feel the reply is you’ll be able to’t. You possibly can’t make everybody such as you. You simply should do what you do. And do one of the best you could at what you do. And be proud of your self.”