Thursday, March 14, 2013

This week's inspiring pop culture moment: Nate Berkus


Courtesy of OWN


Each week we take a look around our pop culture world and try to find one moment that stood out as the most inspiring. It might be a celebrity who is doing charitable things; a TV shows that inspires us to be better. Here is this week's most inspiring pop culture moment.

There’s a lot more to learn from Nate Berkus than just how to create a pretty environment. As one of Oprah Winfrey’s trusted inner circle of experts, the interior designer rose to TV fame and unparalleled business success.

But he’s also experienced hardship. He survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Sri Lanka but lost his partner, Fernando Bengoechea, in the tragedy. And his self-titled daytime chat show was canceled after just two seasons. In a recent exclusive interview, the optimistic author of a new book The Things That Matter talked about bouncing back from adversity.


Nate explained that, unlike many, he hadn’t set his eyes set on TV glory early in his career. He recounted the genesis of The Nate Berkus Show, saying, “I actually didn't always want to have my own show. I thought it would be interesting, but it was a moment in time where the 'Oprah' show was ending. And we had had meetings with them to talk about what would be next for me after the 'Oprah' show. And there were lots of ideas tossed around and the opportunity to host a daytime syndicated talk show was one of them.”

He continued, “Quite honestly, I didn't know how I felt about that. I thought it was a tremendous opportunity and I'm a very ambitious person. So it's difficult for me, when somebody puts something in front of me or an opportunity presents itself, not to take it.”

Still, jumping at that chance helped Nate realize a very valuable lesson. He conceded, “What I've learned is that you shouldn't take every opportunity. You need to have the space around the lot of the decisions, especially the important ones that you make, so that you know that you're doing the right thing.”

With a little distance, he now has come to the conclusion that The Nate Berkus Show might not have been his best career move. The 41-year-old acknowledged, “In hindsight, I don't regret doing the show but I was, in all honesty, a little bit relieved when it was canceled because I didn't feel like it was the best thing for me to be doing.”

But being a part of Oprah’s camp will certainly help people pay attention to those ‘ah-ha” moments. Nate seems to have had his share of those throughout this process.

He confessed, “In the end, I learned a lot. I met a lot of really wonderful people. It was an unbelievable learning curve, the two years that I had the show. And I have zero regrets.” And really, isn’t that one of the keys to leading a happy life?

Learn more about Nate Berkus at his official website, follow him on Twitter and pick up a copy of his book The Things That Matter at Amazon.com.

No comments:

Post a Comment