Victoria Principal quotes: from soap opera to skincare, her best lessons learned along the way.
“Don’t strive to be perfect. Strive for excellence.”
“I don’t see it as a risk when we don’t do things – that is the greater risk. I see it as living.”
“Life is complicated; we never know what life is going to throw at us. If we have a relationship with ourselves where we know our strengths and our weaknesses and we’re really honest with ourselves, I think it helps us cope with everything better. It doesn’t mean we can’t work towards strengthening our weaknesses, but just having an honest relationship with yourself, knowing who you are and who you’re not is a good start.”
“Success doesn’t mean that you are healthy, success doesn’t mean that you’re happy, success doesn’t mean that you’re rested. Success really doesn’t mean that you look good, or feel good, or are good.”
“Life has a way of offering us unexpected gifts if we are paying attention.”
“You know the saying ‘all you have to fear is fear itself?’ When I’m beginning a new venture or in the midst of one and I’m having anxiety and fears about it, I try and separate the realistic fears from the fears of fear. I think the fear of failure really gets in our way. If I can’t sleep because I’m worried about failing, what I need to do is stop concentrating on failing and start concentrating on fixing it.”
“The one constant in life is change so it really is necessary… to change in order to grow.”
“Never be afraid to speak up. It is the things that you don’t say that will haunt you.”
“Gratitude is the heart’s memory.”
“There are moments in life when you discover your true character.”
“I try to treat people the way I would like to be treated, but I can’t worry about what everyone’s going to think.”
“People often see things in black and white terms, they often misconstrue kindness as weakness when in fact it is not. Just as violence is not strength.”
“You can’t be responsible for the way people respond to you. You’re only responsible for yourself.”
“There came a moment in my life when I realized that I had stepped into another part of my life. I used to walk into a room full of people and think, ‘Do they like me?’ And one day I walked in and I thought, ‘Do I like them?'”
“I went to a woman for advice about how to be in business, but I learned a great deal from men.”
“I keep a very open mind. Gender is not part of the issue for me. It’s who will give me what I need.”
“When I went to sign the Dallas contract, because of my previous incarnation as an agent and the fact I had studied contractual law, I really read the contract myself. As a result, I was the only person in the cast who did commercials, who was doing movies of the week, who wrote books, and these all belong to me. I retained the control and ownership of my image. No one owns me.”
“I’m having the opportunity to mentor younger women and nurture them and see them explore areas that weren’t open to me. What we’re doing now is teaching young women how to compete effectively.”
“I got even with all the bad management I had by being a good manager. Being an agent gave me a great sense of satisfaction.”
“Maybe my greatest fear in life is not to be challenged, is to grow weary of life, and not to be passionate about it.”
“Anything in nature ignites my creativity – it’s as important to me as oxygen.”
“I arrived in California with no job, no car, and no money, but, like millions of other girls, a dream.”
“I grew up thinking that whatever I wanted to do, I could do.”
“The fear factor didn’t get in the way.”
“There are two things in life that I really wanted to do: be an actress, and to be in skin care – and I’ve gotten to do both of them.”
“I created my skin care company in 1989 and debuted it simultaneously in 1991 both in an infomercial and on QVC. I’m happy to say, that the company has exceeded even my wildest expectations and is now available in over 40 countries.”
“[The best part about being an entrepreneur] Working for myself and being willing to take all of the blame when things go wrong and happy to take the credit when I get it right.”
“I was very lucky. My parents raised me in such a way that it never occurred to me that I wasn’t equal.”
“When I became a mature woman, I put both feet firmly on the side of maturity.”
“I’m generally competing with the ideal I have set for myself, and I’ve found that served me very well.”
“No one can make me work harder than I do, so I’m generally not interested in who I am competing with.”
“When I don’t plumb the depths or the opportunities of each day, I don’t have joy.”
“I believe that how you feel is very important to how you look – that healthy equals beautiful.”
“Even though it’s supposed to be middle age, there’s a way to have vitality and energy and keep everything working so that, although you’re past the midpoint of your life, you don’t feel or look or act that way.”
“By the time I turned 50, I felt that I wanted to make a change in my life. My interest had shifted in such a way that to not pursue my passion, which more and more really was my skincare company and creating products that could help many people.”
“I enjoy speaking to other women about turning 50, and how we can enjoy it, and how we can explore it.”
“As long as my body is in shape, my mind is working at its full capacity.”
“I never want to become a slave to exercise. I want exercise to be a joyful outlet.”
“I don’t believe the word diet is what you don’t eat. To me, the word diet is what you do eat. I don’t want to spend a lifetime in a negative dance with food, nor feeling deprived of the joy of food.”
“There are people who are well known people but I find the people who inspire me most are not the people who are publicly heralded for the big things they did but in fact people that I know who live their lives daily, very quietly, with great integrity and honesty and consistency. I think if everyone could do that the world would be a better place.”
“Be mindful of each minute in your life – the days, months and years will be well spent. Also, remember that the greatest virtue is kindness.”
“It is so easy to forget that this is good that we’re alive. We should be enjoying this gift of being alive.”
“Fun is so important to me. When you have fun, other people feel it.”
“It was all a dream. Love, Victoria.”
