Tamron Hall on How Not Getting Jobs Helped Her Succeed

I’ve never not felt successful… My grandfather had a second grade education, he was a sharecropper, I don’t even know if my grandmother had a birth certificate. We didn’t have paved streets till the 1980s… I was always told by my grandfather, who took me home from the hospital, that I was special.

When I walked into this room, when you connect eyes and there’s this glimmer… That’s how I measure success: when you can walk in and see yourself in people, and you can actually help. A five-second conversation or a quick email, being able to have this voice or opportunity or space to help people.

Overall I measure my life by how I can help people. It’s my total journey. I’m not trying to be Oprah or Gandhi, it’s just how I was raised. I can’t measure it by my bank account, because I have a shopping addiction, I can’t measure it by sleep, because I don’t get any.

Every single job I thought I wanted and didn’t get, there was something better for me…So far, every job that I’ve applied for that I didn’t get, every idea that I thought was great that crumbled in front of me, there was something else out there.

Life, in itself, keeps you from feeling entitled, unless you’re just a jackass. I think it’s okay that your parents tell you you’re special, because there are enough people who will tell you you’re not… Life, as we all know, will tear you down. Thank God someone told me I was special, because you should see what people say to me on Twitter.