Hey there. Orianna here from Fortune.

Most actors arrive in Hollywood with nothing but a headshot and a tolerance for instant noodles. Eva Longoria arrived with one rule: Her dreams would not come at the expense of her bank account.

Before she became a multimillionaire TV star, sipping rosé on Wisteria Lane as Desperate Housewives’ Gabrielle Solis, Longoria refused to rough it like other actors, waiting tables between auditions and crashing on a friend’s couch.

Instead, she was building a headhunting empire from her soap opera dressing room.

“The first day I landed in L.A., I got a job,” Longoria exclusively told me. “I was like, ‘I’m not going to be a struggling actor. I’m going to figure this out.’”

Figure it out, she did. The 51-year-old star—who now has a net worth north of $80 million; a production company; a directing career; a stake in women’s soccer team Angel City FC; and a $6 million investment in the John Wick franchise—landed a role at a temp agency as a headhunter.

And even once she’d scored her first real acting role on The Young and the Restless, she kept going. She was still negotiating salaries, screening candidates, and closing placement deals in between takes.

Watch the sit-down interview: Before finding fame, Eva Longoria started out on $3 an hour at Wendy’s

“In my dressing room, I was doing the headhunting,” Longoria recalls. “I was negotiating 401(k)s and salaries and interviewing and reading résumés and placing people. And then they would be like, ‘Eva, ready on set.’” She’d hang up mid-call, go act, come back, and pick up exactly where she’d left off. As she got more famous, clients would recognize her—but she’d deny it was her.

Despite regular screen time, it took three years of being on the show for acting to be financially viable enough for her to walk away from corporate life—and even then, her boss tried to talk her out of it, because she was just so good at headhunting.

“He never understood why I didn’t stay in corporate America,” she says. “It just wasn’t my calling, but I was really great at it…He kept saying, ‘Why would you want to be an actress? You’re so good at business.’”

Her boss even warned her that her chances of making it in Hollywood were just one in a million. “I said, ‘I know—and I’m the one in a million.’”

Shortly after, she landed Desperate Housewives—the rest is television history, and a lesson in betting on yourself.

—Orianna Rosa Royle
Success Associate Editor, Fortune

Got a career tip or dilemma? Get in touch: orianna.royle@fortune.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn, TikTok, X, and Instagram.