The most challenging aspect of success is that it can be won through a long journey, yet it can be lost in an instant. You have to sacrifice your life, your family, and your time to achieve it, just to become a successful person. After many stressful, hard, and long years, you can lose it all in a moment, like Nixon. The Frost/Nixon interview is more than it seems; it never started as a victory for Frost. It was a last-minute and excellent victory that made Frost more than just a successful journalist or talk show host.

So where did the idea come from?

An acute mind can always be seen, no matter where you are or how you live. Some people might ignore it, but they continue shining all the time. Frost was one of them. He had a good career early in his life, graduating from Cambridge and making talk shows in Australia and London just before the Nixon interview. On August 8, 1974, Nixon announced from the Oval Office that he would resign from the presidency the following day due to the Watergate scandal. That day, Frost saw something different than others. Everyone was accusing Nixon, and Nixon was silent about it, just writing his book and struggling with his health problems. Frost had the idea to conduct one last interview with the president about his resignation, giving him a chance to make a speech, an explanation, or even a confession.

No one believed in or supported him.

Daring success stories always start like that; people never support successful people or different ideas. Maybe being successful means being different from others, not being common like everyone else.

Frost made a proposal to Nixon’s advisor for the interview, and they demanded a fortune for it—$600,000. This was a fortune in 1974. Nixon paid it out of his own pocket because no producer supported him. Not even a penny. So he put everything on the line. Does it sound like a gamble? More than a success story, right? No, it’s not true—it’s not a gamble; it’s a risky move. But without risk, you can never win. Frost brought in a well-educated and experienced team, and they worked for weeks on the interview. They anticipated Nixon’s answers, conducting a deep investigation into his life and presidency. In theory, everything was right, but how about in practice?

Nixon was well-educated, well-experienced, and the president of the U.S.A. A good writer and speaker, during his presidency, one of the most important things was his good relationship with both China and Russia. When he started the interview with Frost, from the very first moment, he began to dominate it. Frost seemed weak in front of him, and it continued like that until the end. But just before the last part of the interview, something odd happened. Frost was very desperate about the interview and trying to save his reputation. He dealt with channels one by one, but doors were closing. On a Friday evening, he got a call from the president and was shocked. This was a strange call, actually. They both knew the last interview would be the most important and difficult one, and only one would shine. Even though their work fields were different, they were both successful, well-known, and very smart. I suggest you watch the full call in the Frost/Nixon movie 😉

So when the last interview came, they both were well-prepared beforehand. But when the interview started, the shoe was on the other foot. Frost was emboldened and asked his questions very bravely. It didn’t take long to hear the president’s confession. Nixon made one of the biggest speeches of his career:

“I let the American people down, and I have to carry that burden with me for the rest of my life. You’ve got caught up in something, and then it was no vote. It’s my fault. I’m not blaming anybody else…”