Soledad O'Brien

CNN Anchor/Special Correspondent

CNN

Just because somebody says you can't, doesn't necessarily mean you can't. So how bad do you want it?

About Soledad

A defining moment for her was seeing her mom stop and watch as the principal disciplined one of the only black kids at her school.
Because her mom watching, the principal was pressured to speak to the child with the respect he deserved (which might not have happened otherwise).
She says that seeing the power of acting as a faithful witness was one of the first experiences that made her want to become a journalist.
Left Harvard to start working in TV news and she fell in love with the job on the very first day.
She worked her way up from production assistant, to writer trainee, to her first reporting job at an NBC affiliate in San Francisco.
Always set three goals for herself before every broadcast; it'd be things as small as, "stop nodding your head so much."
She encourages road-trippers to be really good in the moment, no matter what they're doing, because it will pay off down the line.
Says she got to where she is by always taking jobs that stretched her and scared her, and by refusing to take "no" for an answer.