E! News: Why did you begin your book talking about your businesses that were the hardest to get off the ground?
Bethenny Frankel: Because everybody thinks now, in the land of social media and reality television, that it’s Chia businessand you can just add water. Everything, even if you are on television, takes a lot to nurture. You have to build a house starting with a strong foundation and go one layer at a time. Even in recently learning about makeup, you can’t just slap it on, you have to start with priming and foundation. Things have layers, and business is obviously no different.
E!: What would you say about going through those hard moments?
BF:It makes you more resilient. It also makes you have more pride and feel that there’s a value to what you built, that you deserve it, and it gives you self-worth. And when you feel you’ve done it properly with integrity, it’s great.
E!: You make the point, too, that you didn’t necessarily have the same fallback that other people may have where if I need to, I can go to my family. Do you think that helped you be such a hard worker?
BF: I just have always been a hard worker. I don’t know if it’s the example that I saw from having a hall of fame horse trainer as a father [Robert Frankel, inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1995], who was competitive and successful, and that’s genetic. Or if, growing up at the racetrack, I learned there’s no second place, you have to win. I don’t know, I’ve always been this way.