I came across a Barbara Corcoran post this week that stopped my scroll dead.

(If you don’t know who she is, Barbara Corcoran is a prominent American businesswoman, investor, author, and television personality, best known as a "Shark" investor on ABC’s Shark Tank and for founding The Corcoran Group, a major New York City real estate brokerage).

She said she doesn't believe in saving money. That she's never saved a dime in her life. That when she sold her business for $66 million, her first thought was what can I spend it on? That she gave half of it away — to family, friends, funds, charities. She genuinely believes when you spend money, it comes back to you.

Now — I don't think Barbara is telling you to blow your rent money. I think she's talking about something deeper. She's talking about refusing to live in a lack mindset. That distinction matters a lot to me right now.

When I started making real money for the first time in my life, I made a decision: I was going to fly first class. Not because I was suddenly rich — because I decided that was my standard. The logic was simple — if I keep flying first class and keep working hard enough, I will keep flying first class. Failure isn't an option when comfort is the baseline you've set for yourself. Can't afford first class? We don't fly. Granted, for a short hop I'm not going to lose sleep over economy. For anything real — Napa, Italy, a trip that actually means something — first class only.

People told me I couldn't really afford it.

Watch me.

I just kept making more money. I had to. The standard I set forced me to rise to meet it. It wasn't recklessness. It was refusing to let fear set my ceiling.

Barbara also talked about the time she was nearly bankrupt — again — and had to shut her business down and tell everyone they no longer had jobs. She called her mom, devastated. Her mom said: don't worry about the money. What a waste of time.

She was right. The next week, Barbara had a new idea. It made her millions of dollars.

That's the part that really got me.

I'm in that phase right now. The in-between. The part where you've had to let something go before you fully know what's coming next. In 2023 and 2024, I saw the writing on the wall with network TV. I knew where things were heading. I worried. Constantly. You know what worrying got me? Exactly what I feared. No job in network TV.

All that energy spent being scared — it still happened anyway.

Here's the thing about the thing you're most afraid of: once it actually happens, you stop being afraid of it. You have no choice but to do something about it. The fear disappears the second you're forced to move.

Am I more careful with money than I was five years ago? Yes. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. I didn't stop living, though. I didn't stop spending. I didn't curl up and wait for something to change. Living in a constant state of fear over money means spending all your energy worrying instead of doing. Worrying is not doing. It never has been.

The wild part? I'm the least worried person in my family right now. Every conversation, every family dinner — same questions: how's business, are you making money yet with Prop Queen, how long can you keep doing this? I get it. I know what I was making for five years in network TV. I know why they ask. They love me and they're scared for me.

I know what Barbara knows, though. I knew it when I was flying first class on a salary that technically said I shouldn't be. The worrying is a waste of time. The doing is everything. The fact that I'm the only one not worried right now? That's exactly why I know it's going to work.

Which brings me to the second thing I couldn't stop thinking about this week — producer Andrew Panay talking about creativity and outworking everyone. His point was simple but it hit differently: doors open up for you, but you're never going to get to them unless you outwork everybody. He used Addison Rae as the example. She started as a dancer, became a TikTok star, crossed over into movies, now she's chasing music. Every time a door opened, she walked through it. She didn't sit down and map out a five-year plan. She just kept working, kept showing up, and the lane got picked for her.

That's the whole thing. You don't pick the lane. The lane picks you — but only if you're moving.

It reminded me of my favorite Derek Jeter quote:

There may be people who have more talent than you, but there's no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.

I lived that in 2019. I left local news. I had no job. I worked harder than I ever had in my life — without even having a job to work for. I was shooting stand-ups on my iPhone. Putting together demo reels, pretending to cover events I wasn't credentialed for. Getting paid $100 a weekend at a minor league baseball team, doing stand-ups in the outfield that nobody asked me to do, because I needed the reps. Writing blogs that went out to maybe thirty people on Facebook — friends, family. Doing YouTube videos with my grandfather. I was doing anything and everything — I couldn't see where any of it was going. I just refused to stop moving.

Then I fell into sports betting. A world I never expected. A career I couldn't have mapped out if I tried. It wasn't a plan — it was what happened from showing up everywhere until the right door opened. The lane got picked for me. Just like Panay said it would.

That's what he was talking about. That's what Barbara was talking about. You don't figure out your next move by sitting in fear. You keep working — harder than anyone else — and eventually something opens. You walk through it. You realize you're exactly where you're supposed to be.

I'm back in that 2019 headspace now. Dreaming. Ambitious. Fighting and doing.

Not worried.

Not even a little.

— Ariel