Jimmy Fallon, At Your Service

He spent years chasing a dream that wasn’t really his. But when the biggest opportunity of his career came knocking, he realized he had to find his “why,” or fail trying.

- By Jason Feifer, Photography by Brian Bowen Smith / NBC

Jimmy Fallon became a talk show host in 2009 when he replaced Conan O’Brien as the face of Late Night. Fallon had never done anything like it before. So as he prepared to take over, he turned to the man who knew the job better than anyone.

“Any advice?” Fallon asked O’Brien. “I can’t give you any advice,” O’Brien replied.

“You just have to do it.”

“I didn’t love that—I mean, that’s not great advice,” Fallon says now. “But I was talking about it with someone and they said, well, he’s right— because he found who his character is and who he is. Who are you? Who is Jimmy Fallon as a show?”

In that moment, Fallon realized he did not have a good answer. Sure, he had ideas for what would be in his show—the silly games and unbridled joy that would come to define his brand. But why should someone care about him? Who is Jimmy Fallon?

“When you actually get that question, you’re like, uh, um, uh, well, I have brown hair,” Fallon says. “I love this type of humor. I love rock music, but I also like, uh, classical. It makes no sense.”

It makes no sense because it’s not how we tend to think. People talk endlessly about the things they do at work, but they don’t always reflect on the reason they’re doing it. What motivates them? What gives them purpose? What is their measurement of success, and what will guide them when things go wrong? You could call all of this a person’s