Ed Helms on growing through failure
ReThinking
TED
4.7 • 626 Ratings
🗓️ 5 August 2025
⏱️ 34 minutes
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Summary
You may know Ed Helms from his roles on The Office or in The Hangover, but building his career as a successful comedian required many moments of failure and embarrassment. In this episode, Ed joins Adam live at the Authors@Wharton series to discuss his new book, SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups, look back on what Ed learned from some of his own mistakes, and uncover the common patterns among historical blunders.
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Host: Adam Grant (Instagram: @adamgrant | LinkedIn: @adammgrant | Website: adamgrant.net/)
Guest: Ed Helms (Instagram: @edhelms)
Links
Snafu: The Definitive Guide to History Greatest Screw Up
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Transcript
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| 0:46.1 | Claire worked in the marketing department for an up-and-coming artisan bakery. |
| 0:51.0 | Unfortunately, the artisan bakery in question was so up and coming. |
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