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American Morning

Interview with Phyllis George

Aired December 25, 2002 - 09:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Checking in now on a very well-known lady -- Phyllis George says that during her diverse career, she's often had to defy discouragement from nay-sayers, and she has never been held back. She became Ms. America, a sportscaster, and the first lady of Kentucky, and now she is an author. Her new book is titled "Never Say Never: Ten Lessons to Turn You Can't Into Yes, I Can."
Paula Zahn talked with Phyllis George and asked her about the lessons in persistence that she has learned through the years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHYLLIS GEORGE: You may be Miss America, but you'll never make it in the Big Apple. You'll never make it. You can't be a sportscaster. That's a man's job. You can't do that. You can't be first lady of Kentucky and think you can work in New York on the "NFL Today" show and come back and raise your kids here too. That will never happen.

And then I started a company called Chicken By George, which a lot of people in the country know about, and everybody said, Are you crazy? You can't get in the chicken business. What do you even know about business, much less chicken. So my entire life I have heard, You can't, no, never.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, what I think what is so interesting about the message here is that you're one of those rare people that didn't lose your softness. When you're in the trenches every day and you keep on hearing a chorus of people saying, you're no good at this, and your can't do this, that can make you really, really tough. That never happened to you. And you talk about the value of staying nice too. Nice girls can finish first after all.

GEORGE: They can. You know, I start that chapter, Feel the Power of Being Nice, saying, Look, I ain't Miss Goody Two Shoes, but I was raised to be a nice girl, and nice is good, and nice has helped me, and nice is not a weakness, and if you think it is, that's a big mistake.

So many people think that nice people finish last, and it's so not true. Especially in this day and time in the environment and the atmosphere of what we're going through in this country right now, nice is really good. And it really helps us bond together as a society, and it doesn't hurt to be nice to other people, because you enjoy it when they're nice back.

ZAHN: But what do you think is a primary lesson to be learned from your very rich life so far, the fact is, you never caved in, and you had some pretty dark times with CBS when you got beaten up...

(CROSSTALK)

GEORGE: Royally. Royally.

ZAHN: You must have gotten pretty depressed during those days.

GEORGE: I would go home at night and I would say, you know who you are, and you know what you're all about. But -- what I did was hold it all in, and I never talked about it. And that is not good too, because people out there listening need to release it when they're in a bad situation. Let it go. Learn from it, use it as a lesson.

Two things I learned from that. Maybe you can fail at something, but you are not a failure. So maybe I didn't make "CBS Morning News" work, and I really tried hard to become number one, you know...

ZAHN: Oh, there have been a number of teams since you and me there.

GEORGE: But I wasn't a failure. So, I tried to associate the two at the beginning, and then I had to dissociate them and say Look, I may have failed at that, it didn't work, but I'm not a failure. And I saw also a great lesson for young people, everyone alike, if you lose, don't lose the lessons. And there are many lessons to be learned that you can use in the next chapter of your life.

ZAHN: Well, you're amazingly candid in this book, because it's hard for us to look at warts and all sometimes.

GEORGE: Well, I think it's important. I mean, I am at a stage in my life now where I can look at it, I can talk about it, because I think I can help people, and there are a lot of people out there struggling every day with small things, big things, you know, and if people like you and me and a lot of us who have been really fortunate in our lives can talk about these things, we can help them.

Muhammad Ali has a story in here. Walter Cronkite, Larry King's story is wonderful about how he tried and tried to get on the air and everyone turned him down, and finally he found this wonderful man who gave him a chance, and he -- you always have to remember your mentors. Your mentors are very important, and give them credit latter on in life.

But everyone in this book, whether it's Chris Evert, Roger Stallbeck (ph), as I mentioned, Walter Cronkite, all of these people have gone through times in their lives when people told them they couldn't do something. But it didn't stop them. They got energy from that. They got even more passionate. So we have to learn to use doubt as our motivation.

ZAHN: It is almost as though we need a road bump in front of every teenager as they're heading towards their career path.

GEORGE: This is a great gift for graduates, high school kids, college graduates going into life. When I started in sports, you know that wasn't easy. So it's -- it was a very challenging project for me, and a bit of an emotional catharsis. I laughed and I cried as I was writing it.

ZAHN: The name of the book is "Never Say Never: Ten Lessons to Turn You Can't -- Yes, I can." Great to see you. Best of luck to you, and thanks for dropping by.

GEORGE: Thanks for story.

ZAHN: My pleasure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired December 25, 2002 - 09:41   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Checking in now on a very well-known lady -- Phyllis George says that during her diverse career, she's often had to defy discouragement from nay-sayers, and she has never been held back. She became Ms. America, a sportscaster, and the first lady of Kentucky, and now she is an author. Her new book is titled "Never Say Never: Ten Lessons to Turn You Can't Into Yes, I Can."
Paula Zahn talked with Phyllis George and asked her about the lessons in persistence that she has learned through the years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHYLLIS GEORGE: You may be Miss America, but you'll never make it in the Big Apple. You'll never make it. You can't be a sportscaster. That's a man's job. You can't do that. You can't be first lady of Kentucky and think you can work in New York on the "NFL Today" show and come back and raise your kids here too. That will never happen.

And then I started a company called Chicken By George, which a lot of people in the country know about, and everybody said, Are you crazy? You can't get in the chicken business. What do you even know about business, much less chicken. So my entire life I have heard, You can't, no, never.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, what I think what is so interesting about the message here is that you're one of those rare people that didn't lose your softness. When you're in the trenches every day and you keep on hearing a chorus of people saying, you're no good at this, and your can't do this, that can make you really, really tough. That never happened to you. And you talk about the value of staying nice too. Nice girls can finish first after all.

GEORGE: They can. You know, I start that chapter, Feel the Power of Being Nice, saying, Look, I ain't Miss Goody Two Shoes, but I was raised to be a nice girl, and nice is good, and nice has helped me, and nice is not a weakness, and if you think it is, that's a big mistake.

So many people think that nice people finish last, and it's so not true. Especially in this day and time in the environment and the atmosphere of what we're going through in this country right now, nice is really good. And it really helps us bond together as a society, and it doesn't hurt to be nice to other people, because you enjoy it when they're nice back.

ZAHN: But what do you think is a primary lesson to be learned from your very rich life so far, the fact is, you never caved in, and you had some pretty dark times with CBS when you got beaten up...

(CROSSTALK)

GEORGE: Royally. Royally.

ZAHN: You must have gotten pretty depressed during those days.

GEORGE: I would go home at night and I would say, you know who you are, and you know what you're all about. But -- what I did was hold it all in, and I never talked about it. And that is not good too, because people out there listening need to release it when they're in a bad situation. Let it go. Learn from it, use it as a lesson.

Two things I learned from that. Maybe you can fail at something, but you are not a failure. So maybe I didn't make "CBS Morning News" work, and I really tried hard to become number one, you know...

ZAHN: Oh, there have been a number of teams since you and me there.

GEORGE: But I wasn't a failure. So, I tried to associate the two at the beginning, and then I had to dissociate them and say Look, I may have failed at that, it didn't work, but I'm not a failure. And I saw also a great lesson for young people, everyone alike, if you lose, don't lose the lessons. And there are many lessons to be learned that you can use in the next chapter of your life.

ZAHN: Well, you're amazingly candid in this book, because it's hard for us to look at warts and all sometimes.

GEORGE: Well, I think it's important. I mean, I am at a stage in my life now where I can look at it, I can talk about it, because I think I can help people, and there are a lot of people out there struggling every day with small things, big things, you know, and if people like you and me and a lot of us who have been really fortunate in our lives can talk about these things, we can help them.

Muhammad Ali has a story in here. Walter Cronkite, Larry King's story is wonderful about how he tried and tried to get on the air and everyone turned him down, and finally he found this wonderful man who gave him a chance, and he -- you always have to remember your mentors. Your mentors are very important, and give them credit latter on in life.

But everyone in this book, whether it's Chris Evert, Roger Stallbeck (ph), as I mentioned, Walter Cronkite, all of these people have gone through times in their lives when people told them they couldn't do something. But it didn't stop them. They got energy from that. They got even more passionate. So we have to learn to use doubt as our motivation.

ZAHN: It is almost as though we need a road bump in front of every teenager as they're heading towards their career path.

GEORGE: This is a great gift for graduates, high school kids, college graduates going into life. When I started in sports, you know that wasn't easy. So it's -- it was a very challenging project for me, and a bit of an emotional catharsis. I laughed and I cried as I was writing it.

ZAHN: The name of the book is "Never Say Never: Ten Lessons to Turn You Can't -- Yes, I can." Great to see you. Best of luck to you, and thanks for dropping by.

GEORGE: Thanks for story.

ZAHN: My pleasure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com