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    Whenever something got tough for me, I quit. And whenever I got upset with someone I avoided that person, which is a form of quitting. I would never say “Sorry,” because I never heard the word in my house. All I heard was “Hey, you, get over it.”
    It wasn’t healthy to be always quitting. I was only hurting myself. When golf got tough, I quit. When accordion got tough, I quit. When school got tough, I took easier classes. And school was tough for me. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was dyslexic. I didn’t know it until my daughter Mayan, now fifteen, was diagnosed with dyslexia when she was five. By then, I was up and successful, so I didn’t get treated for it because I didn’t want to mess with a formula that was working.
    I wasn’t a very good student. I graduated from San Fernando High in 1979, with a 2.2 grade-point average. That’s why my production company is called 2.2 Production. Growing up, I spent a lot of time at home alone in front of a television set. Freddie Prinze, Sr., became my first idol. When I was a sophomore in high school, I was devastated by the news that he had committed suicide.
    Freddie Prinze, more than anyone else, got me interested in comedy. He was responsible for my wanting to become a stand-up comedian.
    I got a few gigs in a small comedy club in Westwood after I graduated from high school. It didn’t go well. My first stand-up was on June 4, 1979. I was scared to death. I had a wino buy me a small bottle of wine to settle my nerves. It only helped a little.
    My second stand-up didn’t go very well, either. But the third time was the charm. The audience was laughing, actually laughing. It gave me a feeling I had never experienced before, an infusion of excitement. In fact, I have never felt like that since, with the exception of the day my daughter was born.
    The fact that I had actually made people laugh didn’t exactly jumpstart my career as a stand-up comedian. I had some successes but was often left feeling humiliated. In 1982, I quit. Yes, I quit again.
    I had some menial, go-nowhere jobs.
    The moment that turned my life around came at 6:15 on the morning of April 23, 1984, my twenty-third birthday. I was sleeping on a friend’s couch in a duplex in Pacoima. I realized for the first time that I was going nowhere and that I was not prepared for anything.
    I had been battling my disability, battling my desire. I was battling making choices and commitments. It was on that day that I realized I had quit at everything. I made a vow never to give up on stand-up again.
    I realized if I didn’t take the initiative and rewire myself I would end up being like so many people I knew who never committed themselves to anything and just took any job they could get and stayed there forever.
    For the first time, I was determined to trust myself and accept the good as well as the bad as it came. In the back of my mind, I had always felt that I could be somebody. The movie Rocky came out when I was in high school, and I said to myself, “That’s me.”
    I had to deal with my fear, my nerves, and my shyness, but I was determined to make it as a stand-up comedian.
    The best advice I ever got came in the early 1990s during a comedy festival in San Antonio. That advice was: “Be bold!”
    From that point on, I approached everything with a newfound bravado.
    There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about how fortunate I am to be doing something that I love, and that as a performer I created a place that previously didn’t exist for Latinos. That’s important to me.
    The message I want to convey is: Be bold. Don’t be afraid. Trust your instincts. If you quit, you’ll never find out what could have happened. So be yourself, and remember: Fortune favors the bold!

Maria Shriver
    Award-Winning Journalist, Bestselling Author, and Former First Lady of California

    Don’t Be Afraid of Being Afraid
    Someone once told me not to be afraid of being afraid,