This Was Lucille Ball’s Advice to the Next Generation of Lucys

After Lucille Ball broke through in the 1950s to become the fledgling television medium’s biggest star, young fans wanted to know the secret to her success. She was happy enough to provide it, although her advice is about as common sense as it gets.

The I Love Lucy star provided counsel to showbiz newcomers in a 1955 interview with the Green Bay Press-Gazette, as reported by MeTV. Get out a pencil and paper, kids, you might want to write this down.

“I know it sounds rather easy and simple to tell an eager youngster to get out and work hard. They get a lot of advice like that from parents,” she acknowledged. “But show business is not different than any other business. If you want to reach the top, you’ve got to start somewhere near the bottom. Learn to be a good listener and what you learn.”

When Ball was young, she said, her family taught her to keep her eye on the ball. “Be selfish about your time. Don’t waste it,” she ed. “Don’t let a party or a good time dilute your effectiveness on the job.”

What would Ball say to complainers who believe the main factor in success is good fortune or nepotism? “Luck sometimes plays a part in everyone’s career, but you can’t rely on it. Even if fortune did place you in an advantageous position, would you be prepared to deliver?” she said. “I like busy people who know their capabilities and use them at the proper time.”

Keeping busy was a mantra for Ball well beyond the 1955 interview. Search for “Lucille Ball quotes,” and you’ll hear her repeating the same advice over and over:

• “If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. The more things you do, the more you can do.”
• “One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.”
• “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.”

Aspiring Lucys got the message. But Ball did leave out one crucial ingredient when describing how to achieve sitcom stardom: talent. All the hard work in the world can’t overcome one simple fact. “People either have comedy or they don’t,” Ball once said. “You can’t teach it to them.”