Recently, I’ve been asked by several people, “So why did you give up your career and dedicate your life to traveling?” And, I point them to my essay, “Controlled Burn,” in the new Kindle Series, “The 10 Habits Of Highly Successful Women.” [Click HERE to buy now – you’ll love it I swear!].
In the essay I describe how (according to Amazon):
“[Paula Froelich] was a raging runaway star in the media world. But at the apex of her career, she had to blow up her life and set a controlled burn to learn what real success is.”
Because, yeah – despite looking like a big old success and supah-stah, deep down I hated my life and felt like a fraud. For several reasons outlined in the essay, but too long for this post. It was by taking a hot minute [read: four years] off and traveling that l that I got my bravery, boldness and self back. After the jump are select excerpts from the piece:
Hello, I’m Paula Froelich. Doesn’t ring a bell? But I’m familiar somehow . . . You’ve seen me somewhere before but just can’t place it, right? Right? Maybe you didn’t hear me the first time: I’m Paula Froelich. Still nothing? Maybe you are unaware that I used to be kind of a big deal. I don’t want to embarrass you or anything, but I did write the New York Times best-selling novel Mercury in Retrograde, edited a national gossip column for almost a decade, and appeared on your TV every night yammering about the foibles of the rich and famous for many of those years. If you don’t believe me—you can Google me.[1]
By the standards outlined in the Froelich Family Guide to Life (an oral manual), I had not only been successful, but I had made it. I had a seat at almost every dinner party in town, photographers took my picture on many a red carpet, and I made enough money to be able to buy my mother’s house, so she didn’t have to deal with a mortgage. I hung out with a group of other successful women and our exploits were featured in newspapers, magazines, and websites. Hell, I was so successful that when I was thirty, I even wrote a book about how to be successful.[2]
Even though this is a series on successful women and their success secrets, this essay is different. This is not your typical “How to Be a Raging Runaway Star” story,or, not unlike one of my previous books, a stairway to riches and fame written by a naïve yet arrogant thirty-year-old who needed to pay off her student loans. This is a story about how, at the apex of my career, I had to blow up my life and set a “controlled burn” to learn what real success was.
[1] Okay, listen, I swear that’s me. I just look a little different now. I used to have straight(ened) blonde hair and wear a ton of makeup that would rival any RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant. In my defense, looking like a cracked out transvestite wasn’t really my preference— – for TV they have makeup artists available to on– air talent, who and they really spackle the stuff on an inch thick. It’s like a rule. Kind of like wearing clothes in block “TV– fFriendly cColors.” – yYou know, the hot pinks, greens, teals, and blues which that morning– show hosts wear to help them “pop” on camera and complement their overly caffeinated smiles.
[2] ItT! Nine Secrets of the Rich and Famous That Will Take You to tThe Top. – also Aavailable online!
From later in the book (after I’d burned down my life):
As insane as it sounds, I had to learn how to behave again. I had to admit to wrongdoing. To learn how to apologize. To learn how to be a human being I was proud of. To learn how to be honest with myself. More than anything, I had to learn how to trust myself.
And some things you can only do on your own. In unfamiliar surroundings.
And so, because I couldn’t leave my house, I left the country.
I’d like to excerpt more, but they’d probbaly sue me. So Buy the book! And let me know what you think…