In this entertaining and freewheeling memoir, media mogul Tom Freston takes us behind the scenes of his adventurous, globe-trotting life—from hitchhiking around the world, to running a clothing export company out of India and Afghanistan, to cofounding MTV and taking it around the world, eventually becoming CEO of Viacom.
Tom Freston’s path to the C-suite was decidedly non-traditional. After getting his MBA, he bartended his way across the United States and the Caribbean, which sparked a lifelong passion for travel.
After a brief stint in advertising, he dropped out to cross the Sahara Desert, ending up in Afghanistan and India, where he stayed for eight years. There he launched Hindu Kush, a fashion company that designed and manufactured collections of contemporary clothing for export.
Freston crafted a life around his two passions: music and travel. He joined the small team that launched MTV and successfully climbed the ladder at Viacom, eventually overseeing not just MTV but also Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, VH1, CMT and much more, placing him among some of the greatest cultural influencers of the twentieth century in the heyday of cable television.
In this thoroughly unique memoir of risk-taking, cultural exchange, and rule-defying, Freston takes us along on his inspirational and colorful journey of a life lived on his own terms.
Tom Freston is a cofounder of MTV and the former CEO of Viacom, where he oversaw Paramount Pictures. After launching a successful clothing export company out of Afghanistan and India, Freston transitioned into the media landscape, helping found MTV and bringing it to international fame in more than 150 countries. Before his Viacom roles, he ran MTV Networks for seventeen years, overseeing Nickelodeon, VH1, Comedy Central, and other legendary networks. He is a board member of Imagine Entertainment and a board member emeritus of both the American Museum of Natural History and the think tank New America. He currently serves as Board Chair of The ONE Campaign, an anti-poverty advocacy organization focusing on Africa.
