During an Answers to Correspondent event, billionaire Bob Johnson discussed how the color of his skin struck a cord during his rise to success. The founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), which he later sold to Viacom, says he was met with great opposition when starting the legendary cable channel. In 1979, Bob Johnson struggled to secure financing for his company. He told the CEO of DailyMail.com, Jon Steinberg, that he would fly to New York to sell the idea to advertisers. When he did, advertisers refused to grasp the vision for the television network. “Sometimes, you walked out of that agency after talking to a 25-year-old white guy and…you think this person does not understand how important this is, and what I’m doing. I’m changing the world for black people. You’d almost want to break into tears. But you keep on going and you go to the next agency.” Never losing faith in his idea was kept Bob Johnson going. When he finally sold BET to Viacom in 2001, he became the first African-American billionaire. “You never lose faith or confidence in your belief. Because the moment you do that, the moment you give up on yourself, you can bet your bottom dollar everyone else is going to give up on you too.” Bob Johnson is now the chairman of the RLJ Companies organization, which he founded in 2001.
