#230 Lucille Ball (TV's biggest star)

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets, they're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso, or four energy drinks before or during the show, so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th.
There in a dusty box, he uncovered what turned out to be a never-before published autobiographical work of our mothers.
The package, postmarked 1966, simply said, Lucy.
The manuscript was written in the first person, and seemed to span mom's entire life up to 1964
I was stunned.
When I read it, I cried.
When my brother Desi read the manuscript, he was overcome with emotions. He said, I loved it. I loved reading it. There's a wonderful energy that comes through. A fire in her belly. As a young kid, a sense of adventure. Like, I want to make some noise.
Her connections from the past to the present.
I salute her for her ability to think in terms of what did I learn from the past.
And there's some great straight from the heart advice.
I love the way she wrote about her feelings for dad. It was very powerful for me to hear about when she first met him.
Some people prolong their unhappiness by dramatizing it. Like expecting applause for having a headache.
Mom does not do this. Instead of over dramatizing what happened in her life, she seems to be trying to understand what her life is all about.
That's what I found most endearing about this autobiography. The way she looked at life. Especially regarding her earlier memories. And what happened during her most formative years that contributed to the kind of woman, actress, and mother she became.
This book gave a much deeper understanding of the pain that she had to assimilate as a child. And the depth of her struggle to achieve the kind of success she eventually did.
Now, along with our father's autobiography, a fascinating, fact-filled remanence of his life. My brother and I and our children, along with the whole Ball or Nas clan, have one of the most remarkable, comprehensive family histories ever documented.
That is an excerpt from the book I'm going to talk to you about today, which is the autobiography of Lucille Ball. It's called Love, Lucy, and it was written by Lucille Ball. That is her daughter.
And her daughter and son were put in charge of her estate. She passed away in 1989 And this book was originally written in the mid-60s. It was finished in 1966, but never published. Her kids did not even know it existed. So they were going through and answering some complicated problems and issues with her mother's vast estate. She's one of the most successful actresses and entrepreneurs have ever lived. And so there's a lot of things that her daughter and her son had to take care of. And so they contacted an old attorney of Lucy's and were asking a question, and he discovered in some of his old paperwork, this unprinted manuscript. And so that excerpt was her daughter discovering the manuscript, reading it, and then talking about the impact that it was having when they read it internally and decided to publish it for the world.
And so I want to go back into the introduction because it's her daughter writing the introduction. And I think I want to pull out a couple ideas because I think it's really important to think about how the lives that we're living right now will impact the people that we leave behind. Before I go there, I want to tell you why I chose to read this book. So all the way back on Founders No. 141, I read the fantastic autobiography of Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is the second autobiography. He wrote a short one and he was like 30 And then this one, I think he was close to 70 years old when he read it. It's one of my favorite books I've ever read. It's just he had an unbelievable life story. But he talked about Lucille Ball in that book. And there's two things. One, that she gave him his first shot in Hollywood. And he just says she's a fantastic woman. She gave him a shot in, this is 1974 So Arnold's in like his early 30s. Lucille, this is after she is one of the, this is after I Love Lucy. So I Love Lucy was arguably, some people say it's the most successful television show of all time. Some episodes had 60 million people watch it. And so Arnold meets her like a decade, decade and a half after her. She's had a wild success with the show. She's unbelievably well known. She's very wealthy. And she saw him give an interview. She thought he was funny. She calls him out of the blue, says, hey, I want to give you this part. And she gives him advice.