Sunday, March 18, 2012

"Do the best you can do".- Paula Dean




Hi ya’ll! Bet you can’t guess who to days dreamer is!

 That very familiar and now famous voice, of the well-known and loved cook, Paula Dean is as welcoming as the home cooked recipes she creates. But did you know that if you would have meat Paula 25 years ago you would not have been able to see the sweet inviting person she is in the public’s eye today. Instead you would find a mother with two teenage boys who was afraid to go out into public places. Paula had a fear of death which led to agoraphobia-a fear of being in public places this was a result of losing both of her parents by the time she was twenty-three.
 In 1986 she felt well enough to take a job as a bank teller.  One year later She was robbed at gunpoint and the incident led her to deal with her agoraphobia head-on.

  During this time here marriage was on the rocks and soon Paula found herself divorced with two sons, no job, a fear of going out in the public, and two-hundred dollars.
Now here is where you find a dream formed out of necessity. I like how Bishop TD Jakes says it, “Necessity is the mother of inventions”

At this point in her life she decided to invest her two hundred dollars in the one thing she was good at, and that was cooking. So she stared selling brown sack lunches that her boys would deliver for her. Soon it turned into a catering service she called the Bag Lady. The home business soon out grew her kitchen and in January of 1996 Paula opened her own restaurant, The Lady& Sons, in downtown Savannah, on West Congress Street. Within a few years, the restaurant moved to a larger building.

 Lady  & Sons was named “International Meal of the Year” in 1999 by USA Today.
But what truly launched Paula to fame is when she was given her own show on the food network called Paula’s Home Cooking, which premiered in November 2002. Since then, Paula has been given two more food network shows, Paula’s Party and Paula’s Best Dishes.

She has also written several cook books, has her own monthly magazine, and has been featured in movies such as Elizabethtown, starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst in 2005. She played the aunt of Bloom's character, and her cooking was featured. A Food Network special, Paula Goes Hollywood, aired in conjunction with the film's premiere.

On an interview with Oprah Winfery, Oprah asked her, “So was this your vision”? To which Paula replied with a laugh, “No honey, there was no vision.”
  You see her dream was born of necessity. At the time her dream was, to be able to go to the grocery store on Wednesday if she needed to and not be afraid the check was going to bounce before payday.

“Paula, I believe that hard earned 20 million you’ve got now, will take you a long way at the grocery store!”

   Maybe you are at the place in life where you know that you are meant for more than your current situation but you don’t know what it is. I would encourage you to follow that instinct and the first place to start is one- what makes you happy? Two- what are you good at? 
   If you already have the answers to those two questions then next step is, believing that you can do it!

  You have a friend here at www.iwill-365.blogspot.com and we believe 


“You can and you will be all that you dream to be.”


  Until next time, “keep on keeping on my friends.”

2 comments:

  1. Check out the interview with Paula and Oprah on the video bar its short and sweet!

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  2. Great Story Buddy! I love to cook but almost never have time or money in some cases because I love to try different flavors that dont seem like they would match and lots of times THEY DONT! LOL......but ya never know unless you try! love the Energy....Keep up the great work! :)

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