Step Out on Nothing: How Faith and Family Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges
It was August 25, 2006, my first on-camera studio open for the CBS News broadcast 60 Minutes. Executive Producer Jeff Fager poked his head in the dressing room. “Good luck, Brotha! You’ve come a long way to get here. You’ve earned it.”
…If only he knew. My mind flashed back to elementary school, when a therapist had informed my mother, “I’m sorry, Mrs. Pitts, your son cannot read.”
In Step Out on Nothing, Byron Pitts chronicles his astonishing story of overcoming a childhood filled with obstacles to achieve enormous success in life. Throughout Byron’s difficult youth—his parents separated when he was twelve and his mother worked two jobs to make ends meet—he suffered from a debilitating stutter. But Byron was keeping an even more embarrassing secret: He was also functionally illiterate. For a kid from inner-city Baltimore, it was a recipe for failure. Pitts turned struggle into strength and overcame both of his impediments. Along the way, a few key people “stepped out on nothing” to make a difference for him—from his mother, who worked tirelessly to raise her kids right and delivered ample amounts of tough love, to his college roommate, who helped Byron practice his vocabulary and speech. Pitts even learns from those who didn’t believe in him, like the college professor who labeled him a failure and told him to drop out of college. Through it all, he persevered, following his steadfast passion. After fifteen years in local television, he landed a job as a correspondent for CBS News in 1998, and went on to become an Emmy Award–winning journalist and a contributing correspondent for 60 Minutes. Not bad for a kid who couldn’t read. From a challenged youth to a reporting career that has covered 9/11 and Iraq, Pitts’s triumphant and uplifting story will resonate with anyone who has felt like giving up in the face of seemingly insurmountable hardships.
When you watch people on TV (actors, reporters, etc.) do you ever think of the struggles they might have had to overcome to get to where they are? Me either. I’ve always assumed with most actors/singers that it’s more who you knew vs what you do. There are rare exceptions of course, you hear about their inspirational stories and it’s always wonderful to hear that someone who has achieved fame truly deserves and appreciates where they are in their life.
I never have thought about the person behind the screen when I get my news. The reporters. Those people who speak so wonderfully, who go into these dangerous places to bring us a shot of something we’d never see otherwise, who go out and find stories that need to be heard, need to be told. You would never think that someone who was illiterate, who stuttered, would grow up to be this face that we see bringing us our news on possibly the biggest news program in our televised history.
This story is so inspirational. One that I actually think I’ll save for Jordan to read in a couple of years. If you have ever doubted yourself in any way this book is for you. Byron has the best attitude. I don’t know how he did it. I’ve let smaller problems in my life drag me down. He just kept plugging through. The final straw for me would have been the college professor who told him to give up. I probably would have. I know I would have. Or at least dropped that class. He does get angry, but he turns that anger into something else. Buoyed by his faith and the people around him, he keeps going, keeps working towards his goal. It was so neat to read how he learned how to read, how he overcame stuttering (would you have ever guessed that he did?), even stories of blatant racism and how he reacted to them. What an amazing man. A situation that would have led other kids (of all colors) to the streets, he never once went that way. I don’t think his mother would have tolerated it if he had tried. I think I love his mother. Tough, outspoken, full of love, and with a faith (in God and her son) that never wavered. She sounds like such a wonderful person!
It was just really a great book about overcoming obstacles and going from your dreams. All of us doubt ourselves for one reason or another but instead of letting those doubts overwhelm us, instead of believing that about ourselves, we need to follow Byron’s example and follow our goals, go after our dreams.
I wish I had his attitude.
You can follow Byron Pitts on Twitter and Fan him on Facebook.
I just saw the posted on Facebook on 2/28 that one of his friends passed away who he actually talked about in his book. Byron, I am so sorry for your loss. 
That’s so hard.
Thank you so much to AME, INC. for sending me a copy of Step Out on Nothing: How Faith and Family Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges
Popularity: 1% [?]
by 
by 
It’s fascinating! I promised her she could borrow it again as soon as I had this typed up for you all to see. 
on Amazon.
by Craig Ferguson. Speaking of whom, did you know he has 2 books out? Back to his book, I loved that one too!) The whole time your reading this, you keep thinking that Elle is going to be evil, that she has this horrible plot, that’s why she is doing what she is doing. Why is she doing what she is doing with the people who have special abilities? I can’t tell you. I’d totally be ruining the book for you.
