Purchase
St. Martin's Press
October 2009
On Sale: September 29, 2009
304 pages
ISBN: 0312577664
EAN: 9780312577667
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Memoir
It was August 25, 2006, my first on-camera studio open for
the CBS News broadcast 60 Minutes. Executive Producer Jeff
Fager poked his head in the dressing room.” Good luck,
Brotha! You’ve come a long way to get here. You’ve earned
it.” …If only he knew. My mind flashed back to elementary
school, when a therapist had informed my mother, “I’m sorry,
Mrs. Pitts, your son cannot read.” In Step Out on Nothing,
Byron Pitts chronicles his astonishing story of overcoming a
childhood filled with obstacles to achieve enormous success
in life. Throughout Byron’s difficult youth—his parents
separated when he was twelve and his mother worked two jobs
to make ends meet—he suffered from a debilitating stutter.
But Byron was keeping an even more embarrassing secret: He
was also functionally illiterate. For a kid from inner-city
Baltimore, it was a recipe for failure.Pitts turned struggle
into strength and overcame both of his impediments. Along
the way, a few key people “stepped out on nothing” to make a
difference for him—from his mother, who worked tirelessly to
raise her kids right and delivered ample amounts of tough
love, to his college roommate, who helped Byron practice his
vocabulary and speech. Pitts even learns from those who
didn’t believe in him, like the college professor who
labeled him a failure and told him to drop out of college.
Through it all, he persevered, following his steadfast
passion. After fifteen years in local television, he landed
a job as a correspondent for CBS News in 1998, and went on
to become an Emmy Award–winning journalist and a
contributing correspondent for 60 Minutes. Not bad for a kid
who couldn’t read.From a challenged youth to a reporting
career that has covered 9/11 and Iraq, Pitts’s triumphant
and uplifting story will resonate with anyone who has felt
like giving up in the face of seemingly insurmountable
hardships.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy