With new memoir, Tom Freston hopes to show young people there are multiple paths to success

Former MTV Chief’s Unconventional Path Offers Life Lessons in New Memoir

Tom Freston, the executive who helped build MTV into a global cultural phenomenon, has chronicled his remarkable journey in a new memoir that stands as a testament to the value of an unplanned life. At 80, Freston’s “Unplugged” offers readers far more than celebrity anecdotes from his time at the helm of one of television’s most influential networks.

“I was improvising,” Freston explains about his career path. “It was like a bebop lifestyle, hitting notes instead of having a long, set classical structure.”

That improvisational spirit first emerged after earning his MBA from New York University, when Freston shocked his suburban Connecticut parents by abandoning a promising advertising career on Madison Avenue. The catalyst for this life-changing decision came in January 1972, when faced with the prospect of selling Charmin toilet paper, an old girlfriend challenged him: “All those years of school, that fancy MBA degree, and you are selling toilet paper? You’re better than that.”

Instead, Freston embarked on a hitchhiking adventure through France, Spain, and eventually the Sahara Desert. This began several years of global travel where he developed a particular affinity for Afghanistan and India. His wanderlust led to founding Hindu Kush, a business importing clothing from Asia that thrived until trade restrictions during the Carter administration forced its closure.

Returning to New York, Freston’s fortuitous career turn came after reading about an emerging music television network. His interview with a 26-year-old Bob Pittman raised eyebrows when “Afghanistan” appeared on his resume. Pittman suspected Freston might be a hashish smuggler, which in the rock ‘n’ roll ethos of early MTV, “seemed to make him like me more,” Freston writes.

By 1987, Freston was running MTV Networks, cultivating an environment where creativity thrived. Former employees describe him as a risk-taker who empowered his staff. Music constantly played in his office, signaling to the young creative workforce that a traditional corporate executive wasn’t in charge.

“It was irreverent and edgy and nonhierarchical, a lot of creative people,” Freston recalls. “If you tried to run it in a classic MBA style, it would have been rejected.”

His international experience proved invaluable as he spearheaded MTV’s global expansion, creating localized versions worldwide that respected cultural differences while maintaining the network’s distinctive brand identity.

The decline of MTV in recent years reflects broader shifts in media consumption. Streaming services upended the traditional cable model, and record companies’ reluctance to grant streaming rights for music videos undermined the network’s digital transformation. Today, Freston says watching MTV is “like seeing your old high school burning down.”

His unexpected dismissal from Viacom in 2006 by chairman Sumner Redstone still resonates in the memoir, though Freston acknowledges the timing was fortuitous. “It was a good thing, because I’m a loyal guy and I probably would have stayed longer,” he reflects. “In a way I got fired at the apex of the TV revolution. The digital guys were just starting to have an impact in a big way.”

Free from corporate constraints, Freston’s post-MTV career has been equally unconventional. He advised media moguls including Oprah Winfrey and served as chairman of the ONE Campaign, Bono’s anti-poverty organization focused on Africa, for nearly two decades. Perhaps most fulfilling was his return to Afghanistan to help entrepreneur Saad Mohseni establish a television network for Afghan people—a venture that continued until the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

Among the memoir’s most colorful anecdotes involves Bono recruiting Freston to ONE Campaign’s board during a late-night party on the Riviera. At 5 a.m., as the last patrons in a disco, Bono spontaneously performed a Sinatra-style rendition of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” for a lone waitress.

Beyond the celebrity encounters, Freston hopes his unconventional journey inspires younger readers to consider alternatives to conventional career paths.

“Ideally, younger people would find some inspiration in the fact that you don’t have to graduate from college and start the next day at Goldman Sachs, and if you don’t you have a panic attack,” he says. “If you’re young, you should take some chances. Take a risk. Go see the world. The world is the best classroom.”

In an era of increasingly structured career trajectories, Freston’s “bebop lifestyle” stands as a refreshing counterpoint—proof that sometimes the most rewarding paths emerge when we dare to improvise.