Connie Chung’s secrets to her success: “Work hard, be brave, and take risks”
Connie Chung’s career began with an entrance: “I barged into a local TV station, [said], ‘I can learn. I don’t have experience, but I can do this job.’ … You know when you’re young and you don’t know any better? I just plowed forward as if I knew what I was doing.”
And as she writes in her new memoir, “Connie” (to be published Tuesday), nobody was going to outwork Connie Chung.
At home in Montana, with her husband of nearly 40 years, daytime TV legend Maury Povich, she can enjoy the view, and reflect on a four-decade career.
Grand Central Publishing
Povich, who was then a rising star in the newsroom, recalls: “She wanted a job, and the news director said, ‘No, no, no, you’re my assistant.’ She says, ‘No, I want that job, weekend writer on the news desk.’ And he said, ‘Well, then you have to replace yourself.’ She walks out of the newsroom, across the street, into the bank, looks at the first woman teller and says, You wanna be in TV? Marched her across the street into the newsroom. She got the job, and the bank teller got a job as the secretary.”
“Generation Connie,” about Chinese, Korean and Japanese parents across the country naming their baby daughters after her.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said Chung. “It was the most exhilarating day that I could have ever imagined. It was they who declared me a success. And once they did that, I thought, Really? I have to accept that.”
WEB EXTRA: Connie Chung on being a role model (YouTube Video)
Pauley asked, “What did you mean to their parents?”
“Work hard, be brave and take risks,” said Chung. “I wasn’t the smartest. I wasn’t the toughest. But those three things, I did.”
READ AN EXCERPT: “Connie: A Memoir” by Connie Chung
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Story produced by Jay Kernis. Editor: Mike Levine.
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Source: cbsnews.com