What My Brush With Fame Taught Me About Human Behavioural Psychology
In 2011/12 I was cast on a TV show called ‘Startups Silicon Valley,’ along with six other entrepreneurs, broadcast on one of the US’s biggest cable TV networks, Bravo TV.
The show’s ratings were low and it didn’t get renewed for a second season.
But the experience gave us, the cast, a taste of the lifestyles of Hollywood’s rich and famous; the network spent $30million on the show and in the months leading up to broadcast we were in the press every single day, on the front cover of the NY Times, flying first class to LA to do filming , instantly VIP to every party, traveling in limousines, getting paid to wear clothing brands and production ordered & delivered food whenever we were hungry.
The show was controversial with Silicon Valley — they hated the idea of the show potentially ruining their intellectual culture, there was a huge backlash and most of the press was negative.
It also spawned some interesting behaviour from the people and networks around me, behaviour that I would have never had witnessed and analysed without this experience, here’s what I learnt:
- EVERYBODY wants to be famous.
Many people who previously bitched about the show have since asked me to help them out with various projects — sharing their event links to my networks, promoting their projects or generally helping them lift the awareness of them or their product/service or event.
Basically they are asking me to help them achieve social capital or brand awareness, something which I gained (no matter how negative or positive) by doing the TV show that THEY bitched about.
Exposure = Users
People in Silicon Valley say they don’t want to be famous, but it’s hard to have success without fame, because by default if you make or do something big, people will share it and hear about it.
Every startup entrepreneur in Silicon Valley would love to be as famous as Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg and/or their products. They are where they are today because they did things which gave themselves/their products exposure.
When entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley want to get press for their new startup, product or service they will do ANYTHING to get exposure.
Since doing a TV show gives you massive exposure, my advice to any entrepreneur would be to do a TV show no matter what format. Three minutes of dicking around like a monkey on camera to get you or your product pumped in front of 88 million homes — you could’nt afford to pay for that kind of exposure as a startup.
2 Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one.
“Jennifer Lawrence was shit in America Hustle,” there, that’s my opinion and I said it and Jennifer Lawrence may well Google something leading to this and read my opinion and she has to deal with it.
It was interesting to witness people’s opinions about the show, because as soon as you’re doing anything that makes you stick out from the crowd, people and journalists get very emotional about it. It’s easy to sit there behind a laptop and criticise, it’s quite another to have the balls to try anything different in life.
It was often the people I saw bitch most on social networks who were also the ones who came to all the on-camera parties, lurking around in the background of the camera.
3 Being famous is really easy
Why would anyone want to commute two hours every day to sit in a cubicle and work at a job they hate for a boss they hate when they can just get famous and be paid a lot of money for being themselves.
It’s understandable why fame is at the centre of our culture because it’s aspirational and it’s something that most people in the world don’t get to experience.
Most people experience boredom or mediocrity at work, fame is exciting.
4 Being famous is really hard
I have a new found respect for ANYONE who is famous. From journalists, YouTube stars or CEO’s of big companies to Hollywood actresses who year after year keep acting, keep performing, keep going.
It’s incredibly hard to deal with all the critiques & haters no matter how thick-skinned you are, and to have the balls to keep going.
It’s no wonder Jennifer Lawrence said she wants to take a year’s break from acting at last night’s oscars because I can’t express to you how hard fame is, It’s a monster.
What I learnt from all this:
Humans are pack animals, we hate it when one of the pack has perceived success or runs in a different direction.
Humans are jealous animals and will do anything to bring a person of perceived high wealth or success down.
Humans are terribly fickle animals who will change opinions and loyalties based on their position within the pack.
What I’m going to do about all this:
Try not give a fuck what other humans think.
Do more TV shows.
Proceed with caution around other human beings.
Invest a large amount of time in fewer high quality people, than try and like everybody.
