If you’ve ever tried out for something like a team of some sort, getting cut shouldn’t stop you at all. At least that’s what Paula Abdul might say, as she revealed a carefully guarded secret about dancing for the Los Angeles Lakers back in the 80s.

Sitting down with her ex-beau, Arsenio Hall, on his late night talk show, Abdul said she was cut from the Laker-girl squad two different times, but because there were over 700 women competing, she was able to change clothes, change her hair and audition again. But the judges never caught on.

Abdul said her never-say-die-attitude comes from being rejected many times in the past, so when she was told ‘no,’ it didn’t stop her at all. “I just went into the fabulous forum ladies bathroom, and I went into my office, the stall, and I quickly changed into another [pair of] festive leotard tights, and I wore my hair now up in a ponytail and I entered as my middle name Julie,” she said.

But she was still cut from the team, so again, she headed to her office–the bathroom stall– changed clothes yet again, and snuck into a third audition. However, this time she made the team, and she said if anybody ever tells you ‘no’, it should be the beginning of your pursuit, not the end. “It starts with the mantra that ‘no is just the beginning of a negotiation,'”she said. “I’m used to not being selected. I’m used to rejection, which I embrace because I have nothing to lose.”

Hall then said that everyone can learn from Abdul’s experience, and he also took the time to tease her a little bit about auditioning three times. “It’s a story for young women and young men to hear and say ‘never give up’ for starters, and also you must have been a horrible dancer that you had to go three times.”

Image via Wikimedia Commons