Lauer told the graduates that character was more important than fame or success. It's an intangible, it's a mystifying quality, it's difficult to define. For the most part you are probably born with it, or not born with it. But some people can develop it, you can improve upon it, but you can never fake it. Despite his current success, Lauer said he had been fired five times in the 1980s when he learned more about character than during successful periods of his life.
Success is boring.
It's as much responsible for who I am today as for all the successes combined. You learn things during that time. One of the things you learn about is yourself, what you are willing to do, what you are made of, what you will do to survive. In 1979, Lauer left Ohio University to pursue his broadcast career as producer for the noon news on WOWK-TV in Huntington, W.Va., four credits short of graduating. He completed a paper to finish his degree in telecommunications.