Being in business, I get to meet a plethora of potential employees. this was one of the conversations that went by with an 18 year old looking for work.
“What do you see yourself doing in the next few years?” “Well, for a year or two, I plan to work with you, if you’d be so kind to hire me. You see, I’m saving up some money so that I can go to Mumbai.” “Mumbai? why?” “Why? of course! Because its the city of dreams! My life goal is to be on the television some day, so I want to try to join a reality tv show, or a talent show. I really love dancing.” “But what if you don’t make it big, what if you spend years trying to make it, and eventually not get there?” ” I don’t know, but I don’t want to think about it. I will try as much as I can.”
I didn’t want to rumble his dreams, which were built on shaky foundations. Asking him further about his plans would push him down a spiral of introspection, And experience has taught me not to project my insecurities and opinions onto others dreams, just to observe and support if I can.
Looking at fame from a third person perspective is always easy, its harder when you too want it to some degree. And like other humans, I dream of being famous sometimes. its always somethings along the lines of making a bop song one day that’s super catchy, or making an art piece that moves millions, or creating a new business venture that makes me insanely rich. Thinking further about it, what stems from all of them is not the desire for money, (I cant think of wanting anything that I don’t already have) I think its just the desire of recognition, the love that thousands shower upon you, the attention, the all-eyes-on-me feeling. man it might feel good to be the life of the party, and imagine when your friends are able to flex on others by name dropping you, saying “Do you know Husain? he’s my friend.” That would be cool. but then, there’s downsides to everything. The line between Private life and public life grows thinner and thinner with each admirer that yearns to know you personally. everyone feels entitled to give opinions on how you should live your life, putting you on a pedestal, making you their gods, when all you want to do is be you, sometimes dumb, sometimes childish, make mistakes, and just be a regular human. But even then, If we know something that gives us pleasure will kill us, do we stop doing it? Seeing the downsides of fame, does wanting it still make you weird for doing so?
It got me thinking. what makes people yearn for public recognition? Does fame always come out of talent, or sometimes a leach-like yearning for reasonless attention? With my 22 odd years of life, I noticed that fame is obtained thru the following means- A) Talent + Recognition- Emphasis on recognition because you could be the most beautiful flower in the world, but with no one around to see your beauty, it’ll be like you never existed. “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?“ Example- These include musicians, artistes, creators, inventors, and basically anyone who adds value to the lives of their followers. B) Beauty + Recognition- Some people get famous just because they have a particular look that gets heads turning. Example- Jeremy Meeks. The dude literally went from being a murderer convict to a Desired Model millionaire heartthrob just because his mugshot went viral. Humans are very illogical beings. See also, literally the entire Social Media Influencer culture revolves around selling attraction to an impressionable audience. C) Pure Recognition- Some people just want to be recognized without having anything to provide to their fans, Hence they usually resort to doing things considered “controversial” with the sole motive to stay relevant. Example- Rakhi Sawant, KRK, Deepak Kalal, Kim K, etc.
Anyway, what was my point of writing this blog? I think ill end it by saying, the pursuit of fame is not always a bad thing, just make sure that its a byproduct of contribution to the society, and not the purpose of it.
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