Chuck Roberts

Today, our floor had an official dedication ceremony and famous anchorman Chuck Roberts, of Headline News, came in to celebrate. Basically, each of the floors in my building are now named after a famous Mizzou alumni who did something cool in their field, and my floor is Roberts House.

In a word, Roberts was very gracious about accepting the honor. He came in and was genuinely excited to be there. Not too many students were there, probably about 20 made it through the whole event. But the group that gathered listened to his stories about his Mizzou days and the advice he had about a career in Journalism with enthusiasm and interest (and some even had their note pads out!). It was gratifying to see how moved Roberts was to accept the honor, and to be a part of organizing the event so that he might share his story with our hall.

Overall, Roberts gave lots of advice about how to succeed in journalism and in life, but I think it can easily be summed up in two words: take risks. He spoke about his humble beginnings at CNN when it was just starting and how he had to forgo money and opportunity elsewhere to take a chance on an emerging company. Outside of journalism, the same advice can still be true. Money shouldn't be a guiding factor, just a concern. I think he made the excellent point, as is living proof, that if you follow your heart and work to build something new and marketable, the money will follow in time.