Wake Up and Smell the LIE of “Success” THEY Feed You
As of recent I’ve been thinking a lot about how fame and success, its allure, and how it’s portrayed in the mass media, especially when it comes to “Hollywood success.”
Unless we hear news of a celebrity going into rehab or getting into trouble, most of the time when we hear of celebrities, we see images or footage of them on the red carpet for some movie premier or awards show, or on some ad in a magazine, newspaper or billboard, or in a movie, or in pictures at some high end, VIP celebrity party. Or, we see pictures of them dating some other celebrity, or getting in or out of their luxury sports car or in their multi million dollar mansion.
We also see them on talk shows laughing with the talk show host or we see or hear of stories where the media gushes over their “overnight success.”
And of course, due to all these images, we spend our time envying them and wishing we had their lives.
What we never stop to realize is how LITTLE of what’s portrayed by the media has to do with REAL actual success.
We envy celebrities for all the fabulous parties they supposedly get to attend, but how long does one spend at a party anyways? Three or four hours max? There has to be something you have to be doing between that because life is not one big party and a day is made up of 24 hours, not three. If one partied seven days a week, they’d eventually burn out and won’t have the energy to do anything else like, let’s say, maintaining the career that enabled them to get to be rich and famous in the first place. We all have heard of stories of celebrities who went broke or lost their status because they partied too much.
Same thing for the red carpet. How long doe one spend on the red carpet showing off their outfit and fielding questions from reporters? Five, ten, or twenty minutes? How much does that compare to the amount of time we have in a day? Sure, some stars may say this is what makes what they do worthwhile, but is anyone even aware of what they went through to be able to walk the red carpet?
We look at images of celebrities on billboards, magazines and newspapers and we wish that were us. Have you ever stopped to wonder that even though these ads are seen by millions of people and they get paid a nice sum of money to be featured in them, it’s STILL work. Many of these shoots tend to be long and tedious, and conditions on set may not exactly be “ideal.” Not to mention, in some of these shoots, you’re required under contract be a certain weight which means you have to exercise regularly and eat properly to maintain a certain physique, even with Photoshop being readily available.
You may say, “Oh well, that’s nothing, I can do that if I’m getting paid $10,000 for only a couple of hours.” However, if you hadn’t cultivated the discipline beforehand to maintain a certain physique by foregoing certain habits and activities, you’re not going to all of a sudden be magically able to do it when 10 grand beckons. A lot of times, habit is stronger than desire, and if you haven’t learned the art of “overcoming yourself” like many successful people have, then you won’t have the staying power to meet the requirements of a lucrative job.
We eat up stories on TV about how this or that person was an “overnight success,” but what we’re seeing is their “glory” not their “story.” We don’t hear about the times they were among the numerous nameless faces pursuing the same dream. We don’t hear about the struggles they had to endure for stepping off the beaten path of a steady paycheck. We don’t hear about the countless hours of work and toil they put into honing their craft so that they can be recognized years later for the talent they cultivated. We don’t hear about the countless failures and rejections they had to endure when pursuing their dreams, the times they wanted to give up or the times they were so broke they weren’t able to pay their rent, buy food, or pay their bills.
The media loves to use the idiotic phrase “overnight success,” not realizing that an overnight success takes 10-15 years. When we see sports stars, famous authors, A-list actors, chart topping recording artists, and other successful people doing interviews on talk shows, the masses say, “Oh they’re so lucky, I wish I had their life,” but what they don’t realize is once again the sacrifices that were made for them to reach a certain level of success that would gather them the recognition for people to see them “worthy” of being interviewed.
Sacrifices I might add, that most people aren’t willing to make. Sacrifices like not partying when all your friends are partying, not buying the latest iPhone, saving the money you would otherwise use to take a vacation so you can take a class or complete some project, pushing aside that salacious chocolate chip cake in order to stay in shape, waking up early to go to the gym, staying up later than most are willing to stay up because you have to work during the day and the night is the only time you have available to work on your own passion project, holding onto the same old clothes you had a little longer rather than keep up with the trends so you can use that money to take a class or workshop that would help your pursue your dreams, etc.
Plus, oftentimes, when you see people doing interviews on talk shows, they’re not just doing it simply for “fun,” they’re doing it to promote a book, movie, album or some type of product they worked their bun off to complete. Many times, they’re uncertain as to how well it is going to do, and they need to use channels like talk shows to make sure it’s promoted properly to sell well because their reputation and clout rides on it.
How about the lifestyles we see successful people and celebrities engage in with the fancy cars, the yachts and the huge mansions? Did they just fall out of the sky or did they have to work for these things? Don’t they cost money to maintain? Don’t houses have a mortgage you have to pay every month if you didn’t pay them all cash down which I’m sure not all celebrities have because I’ve read before about the homes of celebrities going into foreclosure because they overextended themselves. Who pays for the upkeep of the yacht? Who pays to keep the mansion clean?
Yes, we may argue that have the money to afford these things, but they’re still added expenses that detract from their bank account. Often these people have to hire an accountant to take care of their expenses, which yes, may be convenient, but that also is something extra to think about. To maintain this lifestyle is a chore in itself. As the rapper Biggie Smalls said, “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.”
I remember I did my first production of THE IKE SHOW back in 2010 which was a show I produced with another artist to promote the Ike Love Brand as a model. More than half a dozen fine artists got together and created images of me from a photoshoot to be displayed at the event, I also took images of myself and blew them up into large inspirational ads, I put my images on shopping bags like the clothing stores do, and an image maker created a body oil of me with my image, all of which were displayed at the event. The theme of the event is that you can appoint your own self to success, you don’t have to wait for anyone else to do it for you.
Now, of course this wasn’t a Hollywood production event where they probably spend in five seconds ten times more than what I paid for the entire event. Nor was this event featured in magazines. However, I got a lot of praise for the event and many people came up to me and told me how inspired they were about the event. One guy, who used to be a celebrity stylist and headed the wardrobe department at BET, told me he was gushing over my show to his mentor, telling him how much he loved the event.
What people didn’t know was that I was as sick as a dog at that event, because for the month of preparation leading up to the event, I sometimes went days in a row of only getting two hours of sleep and still had to wake up to go to work the next day, and at work, I’d be so tired I’d sometimes nod off. After the event, I was in bed sick for four days.
Sure it was great to get the praise, accolades, and recognition, in fact, that was what made the event worth it, the fact that people were inspired by it, but that was only a tiny sliver of what really went into it. Sure we’re happy to get the admiration of others, but are you willing to put in the work to get it?
The Illusion, by glorifying the superficial aspects of success has created a “fantasy” that distracts the masses as to what creates true success: faith, passion, commitment, sacrifice, persistence, perseverance, and being of service to others. The interesting thing is that most people rather stay in The Illusion because its fantasy provide an escape from dealing with their own uninspiring lives.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with all the external symbols of success as long as they’re not made to be more than what they are: SYMBOLS of success, NOT success itself.
This is The Viable Alternative.
Hope this helps,
Ike Love
