How Bethenny Frankel Learned Being Herself Was Her Most Powerful Skill

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 business and 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.