ANN RICHARDS...In Her Own Words

[Wetzelbill]

ANN RICHARDS...In Her Own Words
by Steve Young

"Alcoholism and my additional treatment ended up becoming the most wonderful, most instructive, most important experience I've had in my life."

When I decided to write my book, "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful," (Tallfellow Press), a look into how high profile, highly successful people used seeming adversity as stepping stones to success, the first person I wanted to speak with was Ann Richards, former Governor of Texas and role model extraordinaire.Richards served on President Carter's Advisory Committee for Women, delivered a rousing Keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention and followed up by chairing the convention in 1992. As state treasurer she became Texas's first woman to be elected to state office in fifty years. But with the great public challenges she faced on the state and national stage, it was her battle with personal flaws that help delivered Ann Richards her finest triumph.

In her own word, here is what Governor Richards shared with me...
__________________________

I always had such high expectations of myself. Whatever it was, I was going to be the best...the best mother, the best wife, the best entertainer, the best nurse. Of course, I could never live up to those expectations. So I drank. When I drank it repressed all my feelings of inadequacy. It made me feel cuter, funnier and smarter. Some people can have a couple of drinks and stop. With me there was no stopping. As years went on I needed to have more and more alcohol just to feel what a little alcohol used to do for me.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-young/ann-richardsin-her-own_b_29751.html