Personal Development

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You don’t just walk into <a href="https://www.thebatterysf.com/club/" target="_blank">The Battery</a> in San Francisco—a converted factory social club in the Financial District—and grab a drink. No, you need an invitation from a carefully vetted member who had to be recommended by another member for inclusion.

It’s a place Ruzwana Bashir never could have imagined would be a part of her future while she was growing up in a poor, isolated Pakistani community in the United Kingdom.

Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/4-changes-you-can-make-to-reach-your-full-potential">4 Changes You Can Make to Reach Your Full Potential</a>

Bashir breezes into The Battery wearing black leggings, a black top and a flowered skirt. She’s at ease in her surroundings, quickly greeting fellow up-and-comers. Bashir is only 33, but she’s already a tech success story. She is the CEO and co-founder of <a href="https://www.peek.com/" target="_blank">Peek</a>, an online travel company backed by the likes of Eric Schmidt of Google, David Bonderman of TPG Capital and Jack Dorsey of Twitter.

The company is a one-stop shop for online travel planning. You enter your destination, and Peek creates a list of potential excursions, activities and adventures you can book. Peek was founded in 2012, and the following year it announced Peek Pro, which helps professional tour operators run their businesses.

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<h3 class="BODY rtecenter">Bashir isn’t some everyday woman with a lucky idea.</h3>

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Bashir isn’t some everyday woman with a lucky idea. She graduated from Oxford University and earned a master’s degree in business administration at Harvard University on a Fulbright Scholarship. She then went on to work as an investment banking intern at Goldman Sachs and got a job in private equity at the Blackstone Group. But that impressive résumé doesn’t make her story any less inspiring. Not listed is the fact she braved the disapproval of her parents and her small community in Skipton, U.K. (population 15,000), when she spoke out against her childhood abuser and brought the man to justice.

At 10, Bashir was sexually abused by a neighbor and, “paralyzed by shame,” she says. “I said nothing.”

She continued to say nothing until she learned of a report published in 2014 that 1,400 children from Rotherham, only 60 miles from where Bashir grew up, had been sexually exploited between 1997 and 2013—largely by members of the British-Pakistani community. The Times, a British daily newspaper, investigated and found that the crimes were covered up by local government, law enforcement and social workers.

Bashir read the report and felt compelled to speak out about her own abuse. She returned to Skipton after being gone for 10 years to testify against her abuser. She was nervous about speaking out—she wanted to earn the respect of her peers before baring her troubling past. But when the Rotherham report came out, she felt it was her duty to come forward.

“You think your voice only matters after you’ve achieved a certain amount of success, so what you reveal won’t impact your career or your life, but I think success is relative,” Bashir says. “We all have a voice, and you have to use that voice to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/if-you-want-to-win-help-others-win-first">help others</a>. If it helps one person, it is worth it.”

<img alt="A Brave Heart Can Overcome Anything" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__36328 img__view_mode__default" src="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/abraveheart_2.jpg" style="width: 100%;" typeof="foaf:Image" /> 
COURTESY OF RUZWANA BASHIR

She says part of the reason she spoke out against her abuser was because he was still living in the community and potentially still abusing children. “I felt I was in a position to protect these kids, and I felt a deep moral obligation to them,” Bashir says. She informed the authorities. The man was charged and later convicted of his crimes against Bashir and another victim, who was 6 years old at the time his abuse began. He’s still in prison today.

***

Bashir wrote an essay for the Guardian in 2014 that sparked international attention. Julian Smith, Skipton’s Member of Parliament, praised Bashir’s bravery in telling her story.

“It would be easy to assume that our beautiful, mostly tranquil corner of Yorkshire is somehow immune from the horrendous cases of child abuse,” Smith wrote in the local newspaper, Craven Herald &amp; Pioneer. “However, former Skipton resident Ruzwana Bashir’s heartbreaking article in the Guardian shows... how these crimes are in fact happening on our doorstep. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/how-to-confront-your-fear-based-thoughts">Fear</a> has produced a cloak of silence.... This has to end.”

Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/top-of-mind-4-bold-habits-to-make-you-fearless">4 Bold Habits to Make You Fearless</a>

The community Bashir grew up in was deeply patriarchal, which she says contributed to her hesitation about coming forward. “I was split between two cultures, English and Pakistani, and it was pretty segregated,” Bashir says. “Home was not an easy place.” She escaped with school, a place where she could excel and feel worthy.

<img alt="A Brave Heart Can Overcome Anything" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__36329 img__view_mode__default" src="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/abraveheart_3.jpg" style="width: 100%;" typeof="foaf:Image" /> 
COURTESY OF RUZWANA BASHIR

Bashir smiles when asked how her difficult childhood allowed her to become the self-assured woman she is today. “It taught me a lot about being resilient and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/top-of-mind-6-ways-having-grit-improves-your-life">having a lot of grit</a>.”

These qualities allow Bashir to simultaneously command a room and make everyone feel at ease. Oskar Bruening, her Peek co-founder, remembers meeting with potential business partners for several weeks in hopes of taking on a new project. He struggled finding someone he connected with until he met Bashir, who had already done several months of research and was working on a business plan for her company. He was immediately struck by her <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/10-ways-to-become-a-more-charismatic-person">energy</a>.

The two clicked, even though their personalities were starkly different. Bruening says where Bashir is a strategic thinker who runs a million miles a minute, he is more even-keeled, stable and execution-oriented. “We made <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/this-is-the-key-to-a-successful-partnership-and-a-successful-life">the decision to work together</a> within days and it was a bit of a gamble, but I’m glad we both followed our instincts and took that risk,” Bruening says.

Having an innovative idea is often the easiest part of starting a company. Getting a team together that can bring that idea to fruition is the greater challenge. Bruening knew he could overcome this challenge with Bashir as his co-founder.

“She is fearless, hardworking and has a lot of drive,” Bruening says. “She deeply cares about the team and their well-being. All of these make her a great role model for everyone in the company.”

<img alt="A Brave Heart Can Overcome Anything" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__36331 img__view_mode__default" src="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/pg74_sm1705_wanderlust_0.jpg" style="width: 75%;" typeof="foaf:Image" />

This fearless personality helped Bashir bring her abuser to justice, a decision that did not sit well with her parents. “They were not supportive,” she says. “My mother was angry that I was heaping shame on my family, and my family would be ostracized. She begged me not to go to the police.”

After Bashir’s story went public in 2014, fellow entrepreneur Matt Lauzon, who founded tech companies Gemvara and Dunwello, reached out to her. The two connected on the phone. He revealed that he’d been sexually assaulted as a child by a police officer in his small town of Biddeford, Maine. Bashir encouraged him to contact the police. In 2014 Lauzon posted on Facebook that after nearly two decades of being too ashamed to come forward, Bashir inspired him to speak out.

Related:&nbsp;<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/podcast/ep-28-the-best-ways-to-find-your-inner-courage">The Best Ways to Find Your Inner Courage</a>

“She has made a profound impact on my life,” Lauzon says. “She gave me a great deal of courage to speak publicly. She let me know that if you are a survivor of abuse, you are not alone and you have nothing to be ashamed of. You are worthy of love and achievement and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/podcast/ep-21-how-5-successful-people-define-success">your definition of success</a>.”

***

On the surface, Bashir looks like many other tech professionals—poised and radiating with boundless energy and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/videos/youtube/how-to-train-your-brain-for-positive-thinking">positivity</a>. No one would peg her as a person who grew up in a hardscrabble circumstance with seemingly few options to advance socially or economically. Add that to the burden of being victimized as a child, and it’s remarkable she has emerged with such self-confidence.

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<h3 class="BODY rtecenter">I’m a big believer in making impossible things possible. I think many people just underestimate what they can achieve.”</h3>

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“There is a lot of suffering in this world—death, illness—and the human spirit is able to survive it,” Bashir says. “I didn’t have a choice but to be resilient. What would my life have looked like if I hadn’t pushed myself, getting an education? I wouldn’t be working, I wouldn’t have the freedom I have now or have done the things I’ve been able to do.”

She knew early on that she wanted to be an entrepreneur, a person who could use self-determination to build a life and a career. Bashir initially worked in finance, a world she describes as aggressive and combative. She says her home environment prepared her to be blunt and assertive, qualities that proved beneficial in that setting.

<img alt="A Brave Heart Can Overcome Anything" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__36330 img__view_mode__default" src="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/sites/default/files/abraveheart_1.jpg" style="width: 100%;" typeof="foaf:Image" /> 
COURTESY OF RUZWANA BASHIR

But her goal was always to be her own boss. She wanted to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/5-ways-successful-people-take-control-of-life">control her own destiny</a>. “I value my freedom more intensely than most people,” she says. “I want to spend my time the way I want, and that’s the luxury when you get to fulfill your dreams. I didn’t come from an environment of wealth, so I know the alternative is that you have no money. And that’s not the worst thing that can happen to you.”

Bashir says she grew up with a feeling of “otherness” that made her wonder what it must be like in other parts of the world. From there, she developed her love of travel. At The Battery, she chats about having just returned from Sri Lanka, where she visited a tea plantation, went on a hot air balloon ride and explored Buddhism.

The young entrepreneur needs to dash. She’s off to another meeting, but first Bashir leaves me with one last bit of self-reflection.

“It’s amazing to be where I am,” she says. “I’m pretty sure if you think this young girl from a small Pakistani community would grow up, raise $20 million to start her own company and live in San Francisco, you would have said that isn’t possible. I’m a big believer in making impossible things possible. I think many people just underestimate what they can achieve.”

Related:&nbsp;<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/126-ways-to-be-extraordinary">126 Ways to Be Extraordinary</a>

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This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://store.successcom.wpenginepowered.com/by-media/success-magazine-may-2017-michelle-phan.html" target="_blank">May 2017 issue of SUCCESS magazine</a>.

Ruzwana Bashir’s courage surpassed her challenging past and propelled her to found a successful company.

Ruzwana Bashir’s courage surpassed her challenging past and propelled her to found a successful company. | SUCCESS

A Brave Heart Can Overcome Anything

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A Brave Heart Can Overcome Anything | SUCCESS

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Susan Young

The man behind today's biggest sci-fi hits handles life the same way he tells stories: by focusing on the journey rather than the end goal.

The man behind today's biggest sci-fi hits handles life the same way he tells stories: by focusing on the journey rather than the end goal. | SUCCESS

J.J. Abrams and the Unopened Mystery Box

J.J. Abrams and the Unopened Mystery Box | SUCCESS

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Business &amp; Branding

Business &amp; Branding Archives

Stay ahead in business: strategies and insights for success

Cathy Hughes, founder and chairperson of Radio One, was called one of the most powerful black women in America by Ebony magazine. The Encyclopedia of African American Business called her one of the most powerful African-American business executives in the U.S. And in 2015 she became the first black woman inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame.

Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/4-secrets-of-insanely-successful-people">4 Secrets of Insanely Successful People</a>

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Hughes moved to Washington, D.C., in 1971 and became the general sales manager at WHUR, Howard University’s radio station, in 1973. There, she increased the station’s revenue from $250,000 to $3 million in her first year.

She then went out on her own and built her media empire by amassing radio stations and eventually a TV channel. In 1980 she founded Radio One, which operates 56 stations in 16 urban markets. TV One, which Hughes started in 2004, serves more than 57 million households. Now 69, she’s behind the movie, Media, premiering in early 2017, which captures the power struggles, secrets and stakes surrounding a family-owned business. Her son, Alfred C. Liggins III, is the CEO of her company. This past year, Howard University named its School of Communications after Hughes.

<h3 class="BODY-w--Q-A">Q: Although Media isn’t strictly autobiographical, you have a family-owned business run by you and your son, Alfred. What is the hardest challenge FOR A family-owned business?</h3>

A: The hardest challenge is transmission of power. You look at the children who are getting ready to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/how-to-become-the-leader-you-need-to-be">assume the mantle of leadership</a>, and you remember the day they lost the keys to the house or when you told them not to drive the car and you come home to find a smashed-in fender. You need to let them forge their own path, which can be particularly challenging. Battles for power in a family are not unique to being a black business, but it can be more challenging because we don’t have a lot of generational businesses, so we are going into territory that isn’t familiar to us.

<h3 class="BODY-w--Q-A">Q: How hard is it to treat Alfred like a CEO instead of a son?</h3>

A: It’s hard for parents to really let go and let the next generation take the lead. But I’ll give you a simple story of what happened the other day. We were walking down the hall when we passed an employee, and I didn’t hear or see him acknowledge her, so I said, “Alfred! Did you speak to her?” He said, “I’m not 6. I know how to speak to people.” But that momma gene just jumped in. It happens when a parent is still involved in the business.

Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/podcast/ep-36-all-in-the-family">All in the Family</a>

<h3 class="BODY-w--Q-A">Q: What happens when it’s an issue more stressful than that?</h3>

A: One of the things he and I agreed on many years ago was that we would never allow the business to mess up the family. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/14-loving-quotes-about-family">Family is No. 1.</a> I studied the horror stories of brothers and sisters never speaking to each other again, children plotting against parents. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-9-things-more-important-than-money">Money is not worth that.</a> We both understand and trust each other and know that one has to be willing to trust, even if we don’t see the path the other does. As the parent, I have to trust in the next generation even if they mess it up. Then you say, “Fix it.” The reality is that not everything I did was right. The most important thing you can give the next generation is <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/21-quotes-about-failing-fearlessly">the freedom to fail</a>. We don’t even want to see our child stub a toe, but you have to allow them to fail in the same way you empower them to succeed.

&nbsp;

<h2 class="BODY rtecenter">“The most important thing you can give the next generation is the freedom to fail.”</h2>

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<h3 class="BODY-w--Q-A">Q: What was the positive effect of bringing your son into a control position?</h3>

A: Generational businesses allow for new thought patterns. I was old school. I would get a radio station and pay it off. I come from a generation where you pay off your house, you pay off your car, and you don’t have debt. But Alfred said, “Let’s use what we have as leverage so we can buy more. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/what-ive-learned-from-living-boldly-and-taking-risks">Let’s take some risks.</a> As long as our lenders are willing to do it, let’s roll the dice.”

<h3 class="BODY-w--Q-A">Q: What is a common misconception about lenders?</h3>

A: That lenders <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-how-to-turn-your-ideas-into-action">invest in ideas</a>. Ideas are like noses; everyone has one. But they are investing in the person. Once your lenders become comfortable with you and know you come to them with integrity and commitment, they will go for the ride, even when they might think what you have isn’t the best idea. Because they are banking on you.

<h3 class="BODY-w--Q-A">Q: What sets apart people who get funded from those who don’t?</h3>

A: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/are-you-willing-to-do-whatever-it-takes">A willingness to sacrifice to achieve their ideas, goals and vision.</a> What are you willing to give up? At 17, my son went off to college, and I was in a radio station sleeping in a sleeping bag and washing up in the bathroom. I sacrificed my car and my house. I was willing to give up everything to make a return on my lender’s investment.

<h3 class="BODY-w--Q-A">Q: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/the-7-most-common-mistakes-first-time-entrepreneurs-make">What is the single most common mistake new entrepreneurs make?</a></h3>

A: When you can’t make your financial obligation, you need to be the first person to notify your lenders. When you can’t pay your bills, call the people. If you can’t make a full payment, send a partial payment. Most of the time, lenders would rather just put it on the back of the loan. Return phone calls; don’t hide. It’s the penalty you are afraid of, that <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/how-to-handle-fear-and-failure-like-a-boss">you have to admit your failures</a>. Just tell them the truth: My projections have changed, performance isn’t what I expected. Honesty really is the best policy, especially when it comes to money.

Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/5-lessons-i-learned-from-200-successful-entrepreneurs">5 Lessons I Learned From 200+ Successful Entrepreneurs </a>

&nbsp;

This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://store.successcom.wpenginepowered.com/by-media/magazines/success-magazine-december-2016-coach-john-wooden.html" target="_blank">December 2016 issue of SUCCESS magazine</a>.

‘The most important thing you can give the next generation is the freedom to fail.’

‘The most important thing you can give the next generation is the freedom to fail.’ | SUCCESS

Radio One’s Cathy Hughes Keeps Business in the Family

Radio One’s Cathy Hughes Keeps Business in the Family | SUCCESS

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Longevity &amp; Performance

Longevity &amp; Performance Archives

Longevity &amp; Performance | SUCCESS | What Achievers Read

At a CBS party last summer that heralded new and returning TV shows, Drew Carey stood in the center of the storm, calmly chatting with reporters about his gig as the host of The Price Is Right.

As the group dispersed and he and I were alone, he spotted my badge identifying me as a writer for SUCCESS. He said the magazine is one of his favorites and that he’s been reading it since long before he gained fame as a comedian and star of The Drew Carey Show.

A compliment paid to a writer by a celebrity isn’t so unusual—flattery begets flattery, or so it’s hoped. But Carey wasn’t looking for that.

“It’s my kind of publication,” says Carey, 57. “It’s all about how to improve yourself and your business.”

With his Midwest charm, trimmed-down physique and trademark appearance—crewcut, black-rimmed glasses, suit and tie—Carey appears confident and put-together. But that wasn’t the case throughout his early years as he struggled with poor self-esteem and depression, twice attempting suicide. He says self-improvement books helped him turn his life around.

Carey remains an insatiable consumer of such material and is outspoken in his praise for icons in the field, including Zig Ziglar and Og Mandino. “I have a dog-eared copy of Og Mandino’s University of Success at my house. I read it all the time,” Carey says about the 1983 classic. “I needed University of Success because it went right to believing in yourself, which I never did.”

Carey and the late Mandino share similar life experiences. Mandino lost his mother just after high school, joined the military, felt like a failure and battled alcoholism before turning his life around and going on to write The Greatest Salesman in the World.

Carey was 8 when his father died of a brain tumor. Afterward he asked his mother to take him to see a psychiatrist, but she couldn’t afford it and didn’t have the time to follow through. His mother held down two jobs to provide for her three sons in their working-class Cleveland neighborhood.

Carey told People that he was often alone after school, watching cartoons, memorizing joke books and listening to comedy albums. His brothers were older; Neal, who died of a heart attack in 2010, was 12 years Drew’s senior, and Roger is six years older.

Carey has described himself as a nerdy loner who spent his childhood feeling unworthy of happiness or success. That didn’t change when he went to Kent State University, where he was twice expelled for poor grades and spent five years attending classes without earning a degree.

As a freshman, Carey tried to kill himself. He continued fighting depression and, at 23 and waiting tables at a Denny’s restaurant in Las Vegas, tried to kill himself again. This time, his brother Roger bought him a ticket home to Cleveland. Carey immersed himself in self-empowerment books, including Wayne Dyer’s Your Erroneous Zones and the writings of Ziglar and Mandino.

After a few years, Carey moved to San Diego, where his older brother Neal lived. In 1980 he signed up for the Marine Reserves, which he brushes off as “not really a Marine. Just the reserves. Not a big deal.” But he did gain more discipline as well as his signature hairstyle.

With aid from a disc jockey friend who asked him to help write on-air jokes, Carey discovered his talent for comedy. He began writing jokes for others, performed local comedy and went on the stand-up circuit.

While still plagued with self-doubts, he received a huge ego boost when he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1991 and became one of the few comics invited to sit next to Carson after his bit.

When he was “called to the couch,” Carey knew he had made it, he has told reporters. Raised Presbyterian, he likened the Tonight Show experience to joining the Pentecostal church when he was in junior high. “There was an altar call, and I went up, and I got saved. And I rolled around, talked in tongues, all that stuff you hear about. And being called over to the couch by Johnny was the closest thing I ever had to that.”

Carey’s career was taking off. After appearing on the short-lived 1994 NBC sitcom The Good Life, he pitched a sitcom about a good-natured working guy based loosely on his life. The Drew Carey Show was an instant hit that ran from 1995 to 2004.

Then in 2007, he took the reins of the long-running game show The Price Is Right, which had been helmed for decades by Bob Barker.

Mike Richards, executive producer of The Price Is Right, says Carey is constantly “regrounding” himself with perspectives on how to be&nbsp;better.

“When you achieve a tremendous amount of success in TV and movies, it is very easy to lose perspective. He could be unaware of how lucky he is or how much he has been compared to other people,” Richards says. “He’s a naturally empathetic person, and being focused on constant improvement, he doesn’t retreat into that world of fame and fortune.”

While he doesn’t foist his practices on others, Carey does try to incorporate what he learns into his work and share it with anyone who is interested. He often suggests books to his co-workers and has even paid for consultants to come to The Price Is Right studio for training sessions.

Richards remembers Carey being so impressed by the work of David Allen—best-selling author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity—that he brought in a consultant to help teach people how to organize their workdays. Allen writes that it’s difficult for people to focus on big-picture goals if they can’t free up mental space by controlling their day-to-day tasks.

“Drew reads everything, trying to make himself better, and it really is what defines him,” Richards says. “But he’s also funny about it. He told me to read The 4-Hour Workweek [by Tim Ferriss] and then told me that he didn’t want me to really follow it because he said it won’t work for you to do the show, and he laughed.”

Richards remembers dinner parties Carey has hosted with carefully crafted guest lists designed for learning. One included comedians, some unknown musicians, “one of the biggest bands of the ’70s” and British physicist Brian Cox.

“And they were all there to talk to the physicist,” Richards says. “Drew is constantly reading and surrounding himself with smart people. He doesn’t sit around and waste time basking in his success.”

Carey’s path to self-improvement hasn’t been without detours. “I’ve been super-happy lately,” he says. “I’m eating better, taking better care of myself. When I was doing [The Drew Carey Show], I&nbsp;was eating a lot of garbage, I was drinking a lot, so I had a lot of mood swings. I had diabetes.”

What changed for him was the realization that he wasn’t being the person he wanted to be for Connor, the son of his former fiancée, Nicole Jaracz. The couple broke up in 2012, but Carey has remained close to Connor, now 9, and considers him his son.

“My kid made the difference,” Carey says. “I wanted to stay alive long enough to see him graduate from high school, and I was doing some math in my head, and I thought, If I don’t stop what I’m doing, I’m not going to live long enough for that.”

Carey, who underwent coronary angioplasty in 2001, began a strict diet and exercise plan in 2010. He lost almost 100 pounds and was able to control his diabetes without medication.

“I had to change my whole belief system. It wasn’t like, Eat this for 90 days and lose 20 pounds,” Carey says. “It was: Eat like this for the rest of your life. I mean, I was at a wedding on Saturday, and I&nbsp;ate cake. I’m not a maniac about it. But 95 percent of the time, I’m right on the money.”

His regimen restricts his beverages almost exclusively to water. No diet drinks, coffee or sports drinks. And no alcohol.

“I’m not an alcoholic, but I used to drink a lot. So I decided to go to a beer hall in Berlin and get drunk for the first time in almost five years,” Carey says. “And I didn’t like it. I didn’t like being drunk, didn’t like the after-effects because I can’t think. I didn’t enjoy it, so I probably won’t ever do it again.”

And it’s the same for eating food that isn’t healthy. “I couldn’t play with Connor for more than about 10 minutes before I’d be exhausted,” he says of his heavyweight days. “I’d get really tired at work. I’d finish The Price Is Right, and my feet would just be killing me,” Carey says.

During breaks, he would run backstage and chug a Pepsi for energy. When the show was over, he would go to a diner and have a big plate of pasta. At home, he’d grab a bag of chips.

“I had no energy to even get up the stairs to go to bed,” Carey says. “I would take an Ambien to get to sleep and have coffee in the morning to wake up. I thought that was normal. I wasn’t eating food. I was just consuming calories.”

As he began eating better and exercising more, Carey found he could run marathons, play with his son and still get his work done. “I went to Africa and hiked around and never got tired,” he says. He also had plenty of energy for the show, which he calls his “dream job.”

Earlier in the day of last summer’s CBS party, Carey had spoken to a college class. He says it still amazes him to realize how few young people plan for successful careers.

“People spend more time planning their vacations than planning their lives,” Carey says. “They will go on the Internet to get the best prices and go at the best times, but if you ask why they are in college, most will say, ‘I don’t know. My parents wanted me to go.’ They do minimal research, and most don’t even know what the career they are choosing is going to be like in the future.”

Because professional fulfillment came to him later in life, Carey tries to persuade young people not to procrastinate in setting and pursuing their goals. But first, he says: “You have to believe in yourself, because you won’t do anything if you don’t believe in you because, why bother? Why would I go to college? Why would anyone want me? That kind of thinking stops you from doing anything. You have to tell yourself that you are worth it, and you go on from there.”

&nbsp;

This article appears in the January 2016 issue of SUCCESS magazine.

Drew Carey was no one’s version of success. Then he “met” Og Mandino

Drew Carey was no one’s version of success. Then he “met” Og Mandino | SUCCESS

How Personal Development Saved Drew Carey's Life

How Personal Development Saved Drew Carey&#8217;s Life

How Personal Development Saved Drew Carey's Life | SUCCESS

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Susan Young

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