delanceyplace.com 02/07/06 - billie jean king

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In today's excerpt - Billie Jean King writes about fame at the height of her playing career. Billie Jean, who was and is tremendously down-to-earth, giving and caring, nevertheless speaks and writes with great insight and candor about her experiences:

"The worst part about being famous is that, in every way, it is [mostly] the loudest, the brashest, the rudest people who approach you.  If you sign those hundred autographs, it is surely the nicer bunch of kids who are in the second hundred and get squeezed out.  And the ones with deals and promises and guarantees are almost certain to be the ones full of bull and full of themselves.  One of the reasons so many people who achieve fame and fortune don't find happiness is because, almost by definition, if you reach that high estate, you are going to find yourself surrounded by the lowest hangers-on in the world.  It is not that you get cut off from the real people; you just get cut off from the good people.  And pretty soon, if you don't watch out, you can start to turn into a creep yourself."