CAREER & FINANCE
MOVING FORWARD
Dynamic businesswoman Sheila Johnson continues to lay plans for the future.
SecondAct? TryThird! For BET co-founder Sheila Johnson, the best years are now
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orget second acts. Sheila Johnson is on her third. Seated in the cozy library of the Salamander, the luxury spa and resort she owns in Middleburg, Va., Johnson smiles as she recalls her two previous careers. As a young woman, she performed as a concert violinist and taught music lessons. Then, with her husband at the time,
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BEST YEARS I FALL / WINTER 2015
Robert Johnson, she co-founded Black Entertainment Television (BET). While that second act brought fame and fortune, this one, she says, brings happiness. “I’m happiest now in my third act. There’s not a day that goes by that I’m bored. Every day in the hospitality industry is different. … Always highs and lows, but you work through them,” she says.
H. DARR BEISER
BY CHRISTINE NEFF