My Letter to Brian Williams
February 11, 2015
Dear Brian,
You don't know me but I have watched the agony that you have had to go through this last week with great sympathy. I had my own life-crushing disaster about five years ago and I watched from afar the train wreck that you are having to experience. If you are like me you are saying to yourself, "This can't be happening." "These things happen to other people." "What am I going to do now?" And a thousand other questions mostly difficult to bring to total consciousness.
We are similar. We are both the same age. I have you by two months-- 3/3/59. I assume you are class of 77 also. I hope you didn't have to wear a leisure suit to your junior high graduation like I did or at least you threw away the pictures! We got to be the first ones to hear Elton John, Boston and Queen. Music was great when we were kids.
And you are far more successful than I have been, at least in most people's eyes. You have fame and national and to some degree international recognition. You are wealthy and you have enjoyed great success at what you do. You are to be commended for your hard work, your long and good career and the mark you have made on your field. Sometimes success can work against us because it blinds us and others to potential minefields in our heart that should be detected and detonated before they hurt other people. I remember many years ago sitting in the back seat of a car traveling to an engagement with Chuck Swindoll (whom you may know or not but you should as he is one of America's most well-known ministers). I can't remember the context but I remember Chuck leaning over and saying to me, "Bret, success has its own price." He said it from such a deep place in his heart I knew I would never forget it.
I also think that the next six months of your life could be the very best of your life, but you certainly won't know it during the time. There may come a day when you say to yourself and others "the best thing that ever happened to me was to have to leave NBC news for a season." You are going to undergo heart surgery in the next several months-- not the physical kind where they put you under and you wake up sore but alive. You are going to have to undergo heart surgery fully awake and alert and it will hurt like hell. But you will heal and recover.
I have some practical suggestions for you:
1) Rest for a season. And get away. One of the reasons some of the things that you said may have been out of whack is that you are fatigued. Successful people often push way beyond what is safe. We "red line" a lot. You may not realize how tired you really are. It will be hard for you to sleep over the next few months but you will sleep way better if you are far, far away in a place that means a lot to you. For me that's the beach. It may be something different for you. Take your wife and your kids if they can get away and go. Six weeks maybe.
2) When you get back, find 4-5 highly competent professionals who you trust and ask them to meet with you at length. You may need a weekend away and then several follow ups. You should offer to compensate them for their time. They should commit to total confidentiality. They can't even tell others they are working with you. I think you will intuitively know who these people will be. They will poke and jab and do surgery on your inner life and that will be good. Be honest with them and vulnerable. That will be hard, perhaps the hardest part of what you will have to do in the next few months.
3) Do not be embarrassed or ashamed to seek God's help. I have absolutely no idea what faith background you have if any at all. But you are in a great place to seek and find God. God delights in broken hearts....and he delights in mending them.
4) Then, and only then, craft a restoration plan. Drawing on the expertise of the team you assembled slowly work back to where you and your trusted friends (and of course your wife and family) see you. It may be the same role or you may find yourself drawn to something else entirely. You are very talented and you will do well in it.
Brian, your life is not over. You have half of your career and your life ahead of you. It will be GREAT! This season of reflection and restoration could one day be looked back on as an incredible and unexpected blessing. Of course it is hell today. This is the greatest test of your life. I hope and pray you "ace it."
With respect and admiration and hope,
Bret Johnson
Henderson, Nevada
Dear Brian,
You don't know me but I have watched the agony that you have had to go through this last week with great sympathy. I had my own life-crushing disaster about five years ago and I watched from afar the train wreck that you are having to experience. If you are like me you are saying to yourself, "This can't be happening." "These things happen to other people." "What am I going to do now?" And a thousand other questions mostly difficult to bring to total consciousness.
We are similar. We are both the same age. I have you by two months-- 3/3/59. I assume you are class of 77 also. I hope you didn't have to wear a leisure suit to your junior high graduation like I did or at least you threw away the pictures! We got to be the first ones to hear Elton John, Boston and Queen. Music was great when we were kids.
And you are far more successful than I have been, at least in most people's eyes. You have fame and national and to some degree international recognition. You are wealthy and you have enjoyed great success at what you do. You are to be commended for your hard work, your long and good career and the mark you have made on your field. Sometimes success can work against us because it blinds us and others to potential minefields in our heart that should be detected and detonated before they hurt other people. I remember many years ago sitting in the back seat of a car traveling to an engagement with Chuck Swindoll (whom you may know or not but you should as he is one of America's most well-known ministers). I can't remember the context but I remember Chuck leaning over and saying to me, "Bret, success has its own price." He said it from such a deep place in his heart I knew I would never forget it.
I also think that the next six months of your life could be the very best of your life, but you certainly won't know it during the time. There may come a day when you say to yourself and others "the best thing that ever happened to me was to have to leave NBC news for a season." You are going to undergo heart surgery in the next several months-- not the physical kind where they put you under and you wake up sore but alive. You are going to have to undergo heart surgery fully awake and alert and it will hurt like hell. But you will heal and recover.
I have some practical suggestions for you:
1) Rest for a season. And get away. One of the reasons some of the things that you said may have been out of whack is that you are fatigued. Successful people often push way beyond what is safe. We "red line" a lot. You may not realize how tired you really are. It will be hard for you to sleep over the next few months but you will sleep way better if you are far, far away in a place that means a lot to you. For me that's the beach. It may be something different for you. Take your wife and your kids if they can get away and go. Six weeks maybe.
2) When you get back, find 4-5 highly competent professionals who you trust and ask them to meet with you at length. You may need a weekend away and then several follow ups. You should offer to compensate them for their time. They should commit to total confidentiality. They can't even tell others they are working with you. I think you will intuitively know who these people will be. They will poke and jab and do surgery on your inner life and that will be good. Be honest with them and vulnerable. That will be hard, perhaps the hardest part of what you will have to do in the next few months.
3) Do not be embarrassed or ashamed to seek God's help. I have absolutely no idea what faith background you have if any at all. But you are in a great place to seek and find God. God delights in broken hearts....and he delights in mending them.
4) Then, and only then, craft a restoration plan. Drawing on the expertise of the team you assembled slowly work back to where you and your trusted friends (and of course your wife and family) see you. It may be the same role or you may find yourself drawn to something else entirely. You are very talented and you will do well in it.
Brian, your life is not over. You have half of your career and your life ahead of you. It will be GREAT! This season of reflection and restoration could one day be looked back on as an incredible and unexpected blessing. Of course it is hell today. This is the greatest test of your life. I hope and pray you "ace it."
With respect and admiration and hope,
Bret Johnson
Henderson, Nevada
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