Sam Donaldson Interview (page: 4 / 9) ABC News Correspondent	Print Interview

What is it that lit that bright flame of enthusiasm and continues to fuel your passion for this business today?

Sam Donaldson: I don't know. I know a man who is worth lots of money. We were talking the other day. He owns huge companies. If I told you the names of the companies, you'd recognize him. He started off as a bulldozer operator at a construction site. Now, I'm sure there was a guy next to him in the other bulldozer. How come my friend made something of himself and the other guy's still running a bulldozer? I can't tell you what it is.

I don't think it's genes. It must be something in the background. My mother gave me a push. If I hadn't had her, maybe I wouldn't have had the push. If I hadn't gone to military school, maybe I wouldn't have decided to get with the program. Maybe I'd be running a bulldozer, rather than going on and doing something more.

I can't tell you what that little ingredient is which makes that first person want to go on and aggressively do more, and the other person be content to not do that. It's a mystery, but it does happen.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I got to Washington, I got in the news business, then I devoted myself single-handedly, single-mindedly to it. I mean, I lived, and breathed, and ate it. I worked 24 hours a day. That's an overstatement, obviously, but almost. I wasn't married then, and I devoted myself to it. And I tell people today, if you're going to succeed, yes, you have to prepare yourself. You have to have some background, you have to have some education, you have to have those kinds of obvious things without which, even though you have drive and ambition, you can't really get far, because the playing field will not be level for you. But once you have those things, the way to succeed is just do it the way the old Horatio Alger says it. You have to work harder than the next person. You have to take the dirty jobs. You have to work for less money than you can live on, or certainly than you want, and certainly than you think you're worth. You have to work on the weekends, you have to work nights, you have to get up at 2 o'clock in the morning. You have to skip your birthday, your anniversary, the kid's birthday.

[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

That sounds pretty hard, pretty mean, but we all decide what sort of life we want to live. But my observation has been, certainly in the news business, you've got to give 110 percent. Particularly in the early years, although the secret is it never stops. If you do that, you'll beat the people who are smarter than you are. I've left behind a lot of people who are smarter than I am, or more handsome, because they weren't willing to do that.

Maybe ultimately, they're the smart ones. They go skiing on the weekends, or down to the seashore, or take a lot of vacations in the Bahamas. I don't. Maybe they're smarter than I am, but to do what I do, I think you have to do it my way.

And you think the key to that is perseverance and energy?

Sam Donaldson: I don't know many people, if any, who have had some straight line toward success. I mean, they start here, they work hard, they've got what it takes, and they just go straight to the top over some number of years. Most people get a little failure. Life knocks them in the head. I have a little saying, "When everything is going well, you know tomorrow something's going to go wrong." I feel a little better, frankly, when some things are going wrong, but some things are going right. Then I know we can continue.

I won't overplay the idea of being knocked in the head. It hurts! But it really does strengthen you, particularly if you have some setbacks early on. Because what you say to yourself is, "I'm not going to let this beat me. Yeah, I'm humiliated. I failed here. Some guy got the job that I wanted, and I deserved it, but there'll be other jobs." And then you just keep trying harder.

If you have straight line success for a long time, and you think, "I've got it made! I'm so good I deserve this," when you get hit in the head, you don't know how to handle it. I cover politicians. I like them. I've looked at politicians, and quite often the person who's been very successful at a young, early age fades. Not always, there are exceptions, but often that's the case. Another reason, other than not being able to cope with the media success is, you have to learn your craft. You have to learn your business.

Let me tell you a little story. In the '70s, television executives finally understood that they had to admit women into our business. Before that, all of us white guys were the ones who did it. But finally, life began to catch up with the executives and they understood that minorities and women had to be allowed in. And by gosh, you could just see a bunch of television executives sitting around one day saying, "Get me some women." They didn't know any women. The only women they knew were the femme fatales of this world. Plus, since women hadn't been allowed in the business, there weren't a lot of wonderfully qualified women, who'd paid their dues, and learned their craft knocking on doors.

So they ran out and found a woman who wanted to be in the business and said, "Okay, you're a star. Sit down, you're a wonderful star. See, we got a woman." The problem was, in a few cases, the woman wasn't qualified because she hadn't had the opportunity to get the background. Not that she wasn't smart, not that she couldn't do it, but she hadn't had the opportunity.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. If you have an early success before you really have paid your dues, you really have learned your business, you really have spent those long hours holding up walls, waiting for the door to open for somebody to come out and say, "No comment," then you're not ready. But if, in fact, you come up slowly, working hard, keep battling, get knocked down, pick yourself up, get beaten by the competition. "Well, I'll beat them tomorrow." Then when the breaks come, then when the opportunities open up, you're ready, you can seize it. And you can then go on and be even more successful than you were.

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