Things We Learned From Lucille Ball

I am not the type to lipstick-scrawl affirmations on the bathroom mirror. But if I did, I’d always have to leave room at the end to write “dash Lucille Ball.” The TV legend and Hollywood trailblazer would have been 102 today—and though it’s been decades since she passed on, her words and example are still totally current.

First things first: “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.”

Don’t underestimate a pretty face. After all, Ball started as a model.

And don’t overestimate serendipity. “Luck? I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it, and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work, and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.”

Life is twice as interesting with a partner in crime.

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People love people who try. Case in point, Ball’s assertion that: “I’m not funny. What I am is brave.”

And you’ll love yourself more for trying too. As Ball famously said: “I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than the things I haven’t done.”

Kick ass in an arena no one even expects you to be in. As the co-founder of Desilu, Ball became the first woman to run a television studio.

Life is easier once you accept that sometimes days are just like this.

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Be your real self—even if you invented it. One of Lucille’s most famous quotes is: “Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead.” But she was a natural brunette. 🙂

P.S. If you love Tinseltown legends, check out our Hollywood issue, on sale now. It’s full of ’em.

Photo: Alamy, Tumblr