You could get $10,000 for an exclusive photo of Britney Spears, plus many more dollars in residuals. This according to Francois Navarre of X17 in an article on CNN.com.

But, if you think this post is going to be about how to become a paparazzi, sorry, no.

Rather, read the article and see what you glean from it. Clearly, no publicity is bad publicity, especially for the cottage industry that sprouts up and around troubled celebrities.

It is a rather sad state of affairs that bad behavior and even behavior that possibly requires professional help becomes a public spectacle. Mind-enriching media will lagger in sales, but Britney Spears parties sans underwear, and millions of copies of that magazine will be sold. One must wonder if combining brain-boosting activities with baser interests might be a boon for society, but people have tried nude chess and that hasn’t apparently caught on, so that theory is blown.

At any rate, while we may reflect on this lamentable state of affairs, it is likely part of human nature that perhaps might require many generations before there is any hope that it might be changed and, even then, so long as there is a desire to reproduce, no doubt the baser things will still attract our attention.

Instead, how can we benefit from the baser desires of the masses, without exploiting the potentially mentally ill or just generally unbalanced personalities among us? Not all of us can be paparazzi, and, for many of us, it is not even a desirable profession, though many who may condemn the celebrity photographers will still buy the magazines in which their images are featured. Hard to claim the moral high road when you’ve already spent your quarter to see the amazing rubber woman at the circus.

What we can learn is that being like everyone else may be what politicians and schools and your peers may push you to be, but it is not going to get you very far. Society tries to grind you down to their level. If you’re even a little different, if you try to assert your own uniqueness, they’ll try to grind you down even more. Society is like a bully in that regard, picking on the people who are different. Oh, they won’t beat you up, but they’ll still take your lunch money. Not directly, mind you, but by robbing you of other opportunities to do better for yourself.

Want to be a rich and famous rock star?
You’ll never make it. Better just get a job at the factory.

Want to be a rich and famous movie star?
You’ll never make it. Better study accounting instead.

Want to be a rich and famous author?
You’ll never make it. Better just get a job at the local big box store.

Anytime you dream big, others will knock you down. Show any type of unique ability or talent, and they’ll belittle you.

What does this have to do with Britney Spears? Well, if you don’t give up, if you don’t let them grind you down, sooner or later people will be paying to read or see you behaving differently or badly. If you’re lucky, if you’re skillful, you can manipulate them instead of them manipulating you. Or exploiting you.

Does that mean Britney is manipulating us all? It doesn’t look that way, but I could be wrong. I’m not going to make that call.*

But, what is true is that successful people manipulate the media all the time. Bad publicity? Bend it to your benefit. Good publicity? Exploit it. Any time that people are talking about you, there is potential to make money. Even accused murderers get marriage proposals!**

You have to know your own limits and abide by your own values. You don’t have to dangle your baby over a balcony or party in short skirts without your underwear to get attention. You just need to stand out, to be different from everyone else, from your competition. Bad behavior is not necessary; just behavior that is out of the ordinary. You could climb Mount Everest. You could wear an outlandish tie. Be you.

You could be known as the guy that wears a loud tie. People will talk about the guy with the wacky tie. And, assuming you’re competent at your job, that could help get the attention of your superiors too. Loud tie guy could go places, while the normal tie guys get overlooked.

Then again, you might have to compete with hyperactive personality guy, whom everyone loves because he gives exciting presentations. Loud tie guy can’t compete with hyperactive personality guy. On the other hand, hyperactive personality guy only does a quarterly report, but loud tie guy is there everyday, wearing a different wacky tie. But, while hyperactive personality guy and loud tie guy compete, the normal guys are still overlooked.

Build a brand identity around yourself, and that will help you be memorable. Instead of knocking you down, people will be clamoring to see what you’ll do or wear or say next.***

The trick is in not falling for your own hype, or in losing yourself or your own values in your efforts. For when you do that, even if the money is rolling in, you have lost. The bullies have won.

*In case you haven’t been able to tell, this post isn’t really about Britney Spears, so any speculation about her mental well-being is not relevant to the point of this post and not within any professional capacity of mine to make any kind of judgment thereof. Any opinions expressed are opinions only and not the result of any medical or professional analysis.

***There will almost always be at least some people trying to knock you down. Or holding onto your coattails trying to drag you down or lift themselves up. Or both.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Del.icio.us | Digg It | Googlize this post! | reddit | Stumble it! | Technorati | Twitter
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.