A friend of mine told me they bumped into a famous singer. It got me thinking that those people probably aren’t famous because they are exceptionally better at singing than other singers compared to say a woodworker who is exceptionally better than other woodworkers. They’re famous because music is famous and the woodworker isn’t because woodworking isn’t famous. It has nothing to do with their relative skill in their profession. That thought actually made me quite happy with the thought that I could’ve met many people at the apex of their skill and I would just never know.
On top of that even the most skillful singers in the world are most likely not the most famous. Becoming famous is a skill in itself, separate from the ability you’re famous for.
I think that for mid-levels of fame you can find a mixture of musical skill and self-marketing/entrepreneurship.
But as you go up the ladder of fame you get to the rungs where money is used to pay for an artist’s exposure. The artist becomes an investor’s asset and the “skill” of building fame arguably belongs to the investors / management team. And it is not so much skill as much as it is the power of capital to purchase attention.
It’s the same for every figurehead of every org, from politicians to CEO’s. They can make or break a campaign/project entirely on their own, but they can’t do any of it without team(s) of people supporting them, and often the team(s) supporting them are the determining factor in their entire success.
A best selling author probably isn’t the best writing one. Actually, when the back cover of a book has various praises like that, I consider them a red flag.
Many highly praised business books like that are actually just mostly trash and useless fluff. Good books don’t necessarily get much fame or popularity.
Madonna has entered the chat.
Loved Madonna back in the day, Garth Brooks and Gaga now. They all decided to become rich and famous, planned for it and executed. It’s said Brooks used to walk around Oklahoma State University with his folder of ordered plans. I’m sure there at 10,000 serious actors and singers saying they want to be famous, but these people had concrete plans and followed through.
Sharon Stone did much the same. Saw an interview where she said she was the plain girl in HS that no one would dance with. She decided she would become beautiful and went for it, balls out. I’ve seen men and women do this IRL and it’s quite a thing to behold.
Anyway, I admire people that can stay focused on such a difficult goal like world fame and get it.
I just feel like it’s worth mentioning that there are probably hundreds of others who did the same amount if planning and failed. There is only so much that an individual can do to determine their own fate.
Jean Claude Van Dam said that when he was ten years old he decided he was going to be a great martial arts movie star. Then he added he’s a fifty year old man living a little kid’s fantasy.
OMG, what if I’m posting a reply on a post by the most skilled OP right now, and I don’t even know it?!?
OP is the world’s foremost shower deliberator.
It’s something in the water
Then the tree never really fell !
I work in healthcare in a specialist field, and the best are not the ones who get recognised. The ones who get recognised chase respect and fame - in healthcare that is going to conferences and speaking, and writing as many papers as possible.
But the best people in my field are the ones who do the actual job each day at an extremely high level. They go unrecognised except by those of us who understand what it takes to be good. They’re humble and focused. Some of them for sure go and speak at conferences and publish papers etc but its not those things that make them the best, although those are the only those things that make them “visible” outside their place of work.
The same goes for music and actors. The most famous are not necessarily the best. They are the ones who people like or are the most commercial etc. The best singers are not necessairly world famous - they may be working professionally in less popular sectors such as opera or classical music or choirs, or they may be totally amateur. Similarly the best actors may be strutting a stage somewhere and never seen in a movie or tv show by the majority of the world. And even then they may be the “star”.
Fame and notoriety has get little to do with talent - some famous people are undoubtedly near the top of their field but it is far from required.
I was at a used bookstore and there was this volume called the Who’s Who Almanac or something to that effect. I was shocked to find my dad’s name in there! He was an academic in a rather narrow discipline. I wouldn’t say he was a prolific publisher or had any major discoveries under his name, but he spoke numerous languages and was well-travelled. To be fair, the book was essentially a giant list of names and didn’t include bios or anything, so the bar might have been pretty low? But still…
I don’t want to shatter dreams but the Who’s Who Almanac was a vanity publication. They would include a colossal list of names and then email the “selected” winners asking if they want to upgrade their profile. You could buy a full page bio for the next year’s edition or buy other overpriced garbage. Found this article that gives a great summary about a guy who won it in high school.
My uncle worked at a firm in the 90’s. One time they had two promising interviewees but couldn’t decide who to hire. They found one of the guys paid for a full page bio in the Who’s Who almanac and hired the other one.
Oh man really? That’s hilarious! I’m glad Dad didn’t shell out for a big spread in there then. It was just his name and that’s it.
This reminds me a bit of that shady outfit that was promising to have a star named after you for a price. I was taking astronomy at the time and some friends asked me about it. I said NO! Don’t even think about it. While there are way more stars in the Milky Way alone than there are people who have ever lived, astronomers are most certainly not in the business of naming them all. You can get a visiting comet named after you if you spot it first though.
So the equivalent to having your own Wikipedia page?
My neighbor was the head judge for skiing at the Olympics. The most important person in skiing in the world.
One of the greatest vintage and HAM radio restorer and repair techs is pretty famous. Just not for that.
Who?
Your mum.
She didn’t tell you? You were convieved during the village bukkake
🥴😆
I’d say the apex of your skill is itself something relative : let’s say, for someone who draws, what is the apex of their skill? Their unbridled creativity? The mastery of the technicality? The ability to still capture images when they draw with shaking hands as they get old? So you even could meet someone at multiple apex(es ?) of their skill of you meet them several times
It doesn’t always have to be relative. I could interact with the world champion self-built rc airplane racer. Or the #1 ranked speed runner for a niche video game. Or the person who holds the (unreported) world record for some niche skill like throwing paper wads into a trash can without missing.
Misread woodworker as woodpecker. Amusingly surreal.
Yep, used to work with a world class ice sculptor that would get invited all over the world to make pieces, if he had never told me I wouldn’t have known about it…
I’ve had the same thought myself. Also I think the more accomplished someone is at something, the less they bring it up since they must be so comfortable with it, so there’s an even smaller chance of discovery.
Dunning Kuger is also at play. People who are, like, given a little bit of knowledge on a topic will often overestimate their abilities. But on the flip side, people who have a lot of knowledge on something tend to underestimate their abilities.
Without some narcissism and a willingness to do whatever it takes to get what you want, you could very well be the world leader in a particular subject and by all other metrics be completely unknown, unknowable, and uninteresting.
