Climbing The Ladder of Success (No Matter Who Gets Knocked off)

Ethel: There are a lot of things you’re good at.

Lucy: Like what?

Ethel: Well, you’re awfully good at…uh…you’ve always been great at…

Lucy: Those are the same ones Ricky came up with.

Poor Lucy. Her problem wasn’t a lack of aptitude, it was an overabundance of talent – and nowhere to put it.

Cast in the role of wife and mother, Lucy dreamed of becoming a star in her own right. In Episode 65, “Ricky’s Life Story,” Lucy explained to Ricky: “It’s only because of Little Ricky that I want to get my break in show business...when he goes to school and his playmates ask who his parents are, just what is he going to have to say? ‘My father is Ricky Ricardo, the internationally known entertainer. And then there’s my mother, whose name escapes me for the moment.’”

Lucy was looking for much more than fame, she was searching for validation outside of the domestic sphere, something women today – even those straddling both career and motherhood – still struggle to find. (If that line of thinking sounds antiquated to you, consider the fact that as recently as 2004, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that women made only 75.5 cents to every man’s dollar.)

A little recognition, that’s all we want. Lucy’s top career choice may have been show biz, but that didn’t stop her from throwing herself into a staggering array of unrelated enterprises, from salad dressing manufacturer to butcher to Vitameatavegamin spokeswoman to, perhaps most famously, chocolate factory worker. No matter what job she wanted, she never let trivial things like experience get in her way.

I get it. When I was a young and struggling actress frustrated at being shut out from major film auditions (one required a heavy-hitting agent to line those up), what did I do? Used my mother as a temporary “Ethel” and invented a non-existent talent agency. Am I a star? No. Did I almost get to be in a movie with Brad Pitt? Yes. (But I try not to think about it.) It's common practice on a variety of levels, whether you're a teenager writing your best friend's name down under "Most Recent Employer" on your first job application or a mid-level executive bluffing your way through the latest software ("Sure, I'm familiar with that program.").

Lucy knew she had potential. Most of us suspect the same of ourselves. But what set Lucy apart was how far she was willing to go to prove it - no matter what (or who) stood in her way.

Consider the many, many occasions on which Ricky attempted to keep his wife in the wings. Not only did Lucy always find some way into the show, she usually managed to upstage Ricky in the process. In the aforementioned episode, "Ricky's Life Story," Lucy is enraged to find that Ricky has tricked her into gratefully accepting a silent role in his routine (sitting on a balcony, holding a rose in her teeth while he serenades her with "Lady of Spain."). She keeps quiet, all right...but hams it up for the audience performing magic tricks whenever Ricky turns his back. A stellar show-stealer, that Lucy.

And so, on days when I'm feeling a little low on mojo, I remember Lucy with that rose between her teeth and think: This show is mine for the stealing.

I encourage you to do the same.