How "Celebrity Apprentice" Inspired Me and My Book

Not long after I started working on this book, doing research and interviews and gathering and organizing material, I was offered the opportunity to be on the show Celebrity Apprentice. I was concerned at first about putting the book on hold, but then I realized that working on two projects at the same time often benets both rather than hindering either. I realized, too, that almost every book I've written was crafted while working on another project. I wrote Total Health Makeover while starring in the show Chicago on Broadway. I was doing Chicago again, this time in Las Vegas, while writing I Refuse to Raise a Brat. Healthy Life Kitchen was written while I was shooting a TV movie. I did the national tour of Annie Get Your Gun while writing Healthy Kids, and I was working on Broadway in The Tale of the Allergist's Wife while writing Healthy Holidays. This book turned out to be no exception.

I'm glad I took on Celebrity Apprentice in the middle of writing this book, because it gave me a perspective I would not have had otherwise. Sometimes in life you're set on a path, and you don't even know why you're following it but you trust the world and your instincts enough to know that the reason will eventually reveal itself. It turned out that I could not have had a more perfect experience to correlate with this book. I learned more about myself and others by observing how we all handled being tested in such a cutthroat, stressful, time-condensed environment. It was more than gratifying to me to realize that everything I was writing about rang true with the celebrities I was competing against. It was a powerful reconfirmation of the core philosophies of this book, because I watched them all in action!

Every person on the show was dealing with comfort zones, self-sabotage, and facing their fears. Many people showed how well they use what they have to get what they want. I witnessed those who were quick-witted and dynamic at tasks because they trusted themselves to stay "in the moment." I could see evidence that the most successful people were those who had learned how to use it, not lose it. I recognized the advantage of knowing how to set up your environment to win. I saw time and time again that presentation was even more important than what was being presented. I watched people who were brilliant at tuning into their radar, and those who failed themselves and others because they didn't know how to read a room. I witnessed people use their sex appeal to get what they needed in the most attractive ways. I watched people lie, cheat, beg, borrow, and steal-but we were playing a game, and it was all in the name of charity! And I learned again what I've always known: Resilience and being able to "get over it" are the most important qualities to possess in order to get where you most want to go.

But most of all, I learned that, like it or not, you are in charge of your own life. (You're the Project Manager!) If you find that something's not working, it's up to you to make the necessary adjustments. You can assign the other people in your life the necessary tasks to get the job done, but you, and only you, are responsible for making it all work.

 

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