Al Roker: Weatherman, TV producer, journalist, and author

The Art of Excellence

Al Roker is a weatherman and coanchor of NBC’s Today show, an Emmy-award winning journalist, a television producer, and a New York Times bestselling author. He has spent over four decades on television and received 14 Emmy Awards. He has written a number of best-selling books, the latest book is titled: You Look So Much Better in Person: True Stories of Absurdity and Success.

Some interesting insights from this episode:

• His father advised him that “you’re going to have to work twice as hard and be twice as good to get half as far as the white kid next to you”.
• “If you want something badly, keep at it until it’s yours or it’s no longer an option. Don’t stop because you think you’ve tried hard enough and you believe it’s not going to happen. Stop when you receive a flat out no.”
• He got some sage advice early in his career to just be yourself. He was too busy trying to be someone else to stand out and not allowing his true personality to surface.
• “If you don’t learn at least one new thing every day, you’re not looking.”
• If you can learn to roll with the flow, you’ll be much better off than creating a rigid life plan.
• Al has always woken up at 3:45 a.m.. “Time is the one commodity that you can’t manufacture more of so the only way to make more of it is to start early.”
• “Excellence is doing your level best every day.”

Notes:

Al Roker book: You Look So Much Better in Person: True Stories of Absurdity and Success

Al Roker Entertainment

Al Roker Today Show Bio