When John Brown, ’94, was learning reading at a Missouri elementary school – one of many he attended – he struggled to grasp the parts of speech. Eventually, the powers that be labeled him “slow” and placed him in a remedial reading class.
Years later, his mother told him his IQ was actually quite high when his parents had him tested, and he realized that his struggle with the parts of speech was actually due to his “bouncing around schools” throughout his childhood, not because he was “slow.”
Now, Brown says, that same school teaches from one of the books he has written.
But even before that satisfying turn of events, he told listeners at the latest Merrill E. Gaddis Memorial Lecture, he decided from a young age to use that label – slow – and other difficulties and failures as motivation.
That decision has led him to some impressive places, as he outlined in his speech on October 10. The Central alumnus’ lecture included an explanation of “the odd chain of events from when I was sitting in your seat” to where he is today, as well as “Life Lessons from Interviewing the Most Successful People in the World.”
Brown, who graduated from Central with a biology degree and minor in chemistry, said his life has played out “sometimes in miraculous ways” and credits that to a key principle he’s practiced: work in the natural, let God take care of the supernatural.
At multiple points in his life, Brown received what most people would consider a lucky break – walking into places and getting jobs on the spot, getting terminated from a contract one day before a new and better opportunity came along – but he maintains that the work he was doing for himself behind the scenes was just as important.
“When the parts you can handle meet the parts you can’t, that’s where success comes,” he said.
In addition to his own life advice, Brown shared some insight from influential people he has interviewed during his time in radio and television – the majority of which has been spent in Missouri and Florida. Some “nuggets” of wisdom from such people included the following:
He ended the lecture by telling those in attendance, “Take life seriously, and know your why,” emphasizing the point with an analogy of making a trip from New York to Los Angeles. Though there may be many twists and turns and obstacles along the way, he said, keep moving.
“The obstacles make the trip all that much better,” he concluded, “because you’re that much smarter, that much wiser, by the end.”
Brown currently works as an anchor with KTVI in St. Louis and is working on two more books to add to the four he has already published. He resides in St. Louis with his wife and two daughters.
The Gaddis Lecture is an annual event sponsored by CMU’s Kappa Chapter of Pi Gamma Mu, an international honor society for the social sciences. It was established in 1984 in memory of Dr. Merril Elmer Gaddis, who founded the Kappa Chapter and served at CMU for nearly 30 years.