What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little. – Lord Byron
Some people just want to be famous.
For fame, people are willing to do anything – either they excel in a certain talent, such as those in the arts, or do something really outrageous. How many weird and unusual reality show audition videos have you watched lately? People would do the most outlandish sort of things for those 15 seconds of fame that they are going to have, all in the hope that people remember them for something.
People can be famous for leaving legacies, such as internationally famous Mother Theresa, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Edison, Martin Luther King Jr., or some examples closer to home such as Dato’ Siti Nurhaliza, Dato’ Lee Chong Wei, Nicol David and many others, both locally and around the world who have become a source of inspiration to many people.
People can also be infamous, such as Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot for the crimes that they have committed towards segments of humanity; famous for raw talent and/or good looks such as Justin Timberlake, Jesse Mccartney and recently, Justin Bieber; or famous for being rebellious and controversial like Madonna and Lady Gaga. In short, people can become famous for different reasons.
However, fame can really get to people. For example, there are many innocent starlets who started out singing simple love songs but get dirtier as they become adults due to the demands of producers, because that is what sells, that is what people want, and they make us wonder what happened to the teenage sensation that at one time, even that 4-year old down the street would say to you that she’s his or her biggest fan. Where have values and principles gone? Fame can make people forget who they really are in pursuit of the spotlight, and throughout the process we may lose what really matters for the thrill of attention rush and generally being liked and noticed by a lot of people.
Sometimes, fame isn’t all that lasts in the end, and chasing it feels like you want something real bad but getting nothing except disappointment and disillusionment in the end when what’s really important is gone.
Not that people shouldn’t leave legacies such as some of the famous personalities that I’d mentioned earlier,(by all means you should!) but pursuing fame as the means to happiness or satisfaction or as a measure of success didn’t produce those three elusive qualities to me. How I wished I just got this at a young age…Besides, none of those people who actually left legacies said to themselves when young that they want to be well-known, did they? They just acted on passion and calling, to do what is right and what would help people.
Up until this point, I’ve described in general what fame is in our world today, in my opinion. Forgive me for being really brief now, but in part 2 of this series on the popularity trap I’ll describe in detail my own pursuit of popularity, which is admittedly a lifelong struggle to me still, and the painful lessons that I learned, relearned and am going to relearn up until now.
All I really want to say is popularity isn’t everything, and from experience I’m going to relate a story to you.
Stay tuned…
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