The Real Housewives of New York City alum Bethenny Frankel is sharing her secrets to success — and remaining confident.
“I really don’t do anything I don’t want to anymore,” Frankel, 53, exclusively told Us Weekly at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards on Tuesday, October 8. “I’ve really inched away from that, leaving different businesses and leaving different experiences for that reason. It’s the best. Then you get to, like, the good chewy center and everything you’re doing is what you want to be doing, and then you’re the most successful you ever have been.”
She continued, “I do not define myself by how full the calendar is. I never said, ‘Oh, I have to be a billionaire,’ or anything like that. I only do things that I want to do. I only do things that make me happy or that have a personal ROI (return of investment), from philanthropy to too-good-to-be-true money, you must not turn it down.”
With a busy schedule, Frankel still makes time to prioritize her mental well-being with work and raising daughter Bryn. (She shares the 14-year-old with ex-husband Jason Hoppy.)
“I have to be on an ‘access diet,’” Frankel told Us on the New York City red carpet. “I have to really control what I say yes to and what I’m doing. It’s a discipline. I am very balanced in [that] I will work and stack, and then I have to sleep, and then I have to recover.”
Frankel also attributes her success to her long-held self-esteem.
“I think I was born with confidence, but you have moments where you second-guess yourself, and you feel self-conscious, or you feel insecure, or you screw up and then you really feel it,” she explained. “It’s just part of life. But for me, you have to know that when something goes wrong, you don’t let go of the steering wheel, but you don’t hold it on too tight.”
Frankel added, “When things are down, that’s when you really thrive because you can turn it into [something] positive. So just keep yourself under control. Always commit to the bit. Lean into whatever it is that you’re doing. Own it. Work it. Make it work. You push it through. Being confident is really an essence. It’s a state of mind, and it’s contagious.”
For the reality TV alum, she picked up her self-assuredness during childhood.
“I was pretty much by myself most of my life, so I think I just sort of was,” Frankel told Us. “I was always the new kid at school, so I always had to walk in and figure out a way to own a room because I was always new. So, you know, practice makes perfect. You go to 13 schools, you’ll get caught [and] you’ll figure it out.”
