Why is this frowned upon? I always hear people trash talking actors, musicians, athletes, and even entrepreneurs because of these two reasons. What’s bad about wanting to be famous? What’s bad about not wanting to work at a 9-5 job for the rest of you life?
If you’re famous money would likely follow, people worship you, and people will more likely to treat you with respect.
If you don’t work at 9-5 jobs you don’t have to be bothered with working in crappy conditions, putting up with crappy co-workers/bosses, only having two-weeks of vacation, being told what to do, and having to get up at 7 am.
Nitpick: Most entrepreneurs have real jobs and likely work harder than most 9-5 types. Getting your own business up and running is no simple task.
As to the OP I do not think there is anything “wrong” with wanting to be a famous athlete or actor. I think the issue lies in people who put all their eggs in that one basket hoping they’ll be the next Michael Jordan or Brad Pitt.
If you add up all the working professional athletes, musicians and actors in this country (i.e. they make a living doing it and nothing else) I doubt you’d count more than a few thousand. If you consider the megastars in that population the numbers are a mere fraction of that. In short, your chances of hitting the big time are pretty slim from a statistical standpoint (I suppose if you are some mutant with mega athletic skills you may consider your chances to be pretty good but then there is always that one career ending injury that looms).
So, I think people frown on those who forego something like an education and getting a good set of marketable skills under their belt in favor of persuing their “dream” of being a star.
Nothing in itself. It’s when people look down on 9-5ers because they think they’re above having such a job that the problems start, that sense of superiority. Nobody (or at least, most people) likes working a steady job for someone else but when someone thinks they are above it and keeps saying so then they’re just being pompous. If one finds a way out of the 9-5 mold, great! Just don’t keep going on about how you wish you didn’t have to work and you’re better than this and working is for robots with no imaginations. Because we all hate it, most of us just suffer in silence.
Also, some celebrities seem like they get way overpaid for the work they do, and there’s jealousy there. Some guy who plays a ball game for three months a year for five years of his life will make more in one of those years than I will in my entire life. Can’t blame people for feeling a little cheated. This is multiplied for trust fund babies who don’t do any meaningful work at all.
I’m not knocking hard work. You need a good work ethic regardless the profession you’re int. Entrepreneurs may have to work harder, but they are pretty much their own boss.
I don’t think putting one’s eggs in one basket is the only issue. I’ve also heard people dissing entertainers who have not made it big yet and pay their bills by serving or bartending. Some of these people may also have college education.
Well, so many people, especially in the states, equate your job with who you are.
You are a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher. Those aren’t things you do for a living, they define you. Trust me, nobody who would tell a musician to get a real job would tell that to someone who makes a lot of money as a musician.
As for the working actors and musicians who make a living at that and nothing else, I think the number would be quite a bit higher than ‘in the thousands’.
However, people who want to be famous, bug me. If you want to be good at something and let the fame follow that’s one thing. To just say, I want to be famous without putting in the effort, that’s another.
I have nothing against people not wanting a 9-5 job and wanting to have a real job. I’m all for it.
Someone who wants to be famous on the otherhand…that’s a bit suspect. If the fame is just a means to an end, I can understand that, but those people who desire the fame above all else have issues. I have a hard time defining just what about it is repellant but it oozes a sort of neediness and lacks any substance.
Nothing! “Work” is for people who haven’t figured out how to pay the bill without doing it!
The goal for the rest of my life is to make sure my kid will never have to fill out a job app as long as he lives. I think it would break my heart to hear him tell me, “Dad! I got a job!”.
Screw that! Plenty of people make money by skiing, playing music, riding motorcycles, sailing or whatever.
a) The person considers that it’s not a “real job” if you’re having fun, taking it at your pace, never having to worry about required courses, etc.; or that success in sports/arts/performance is exclusively dependent on heaven annointing you with extraordinary natural talent so seeking success in it is little better than playing the lottery for a living.
b) The person honestly feels that you would make a more efficient use of your resources, or at least avoid a lot of pain, if you pursued your muse as a sideline, but did something with better long-term prospects as a primary source of a secure living.
Pretty much you have to decide which is meant case-by-case and react accordingly.
Sure, it is possible to make money doing things like playing music, but not many people make much money - so you are back to the same question - how do you pay the bills? And doesn’t music/skiing/sailing turn into a ‘job’ if you need to do it for the money?
You can turn the question around and ask: why do so many people mock those who have straight 9 to 5 jobs? 9 to 5 jobs can be rewarding and challenging. School friends I knew mocked my 9-5 lifsetyle, but now I have the big house, car, family and money in the bank, and at the age of 45 can choose what I do each day, they don’t like it. They feel bitter that they didn’t get the breaks.
So it works both ways. Many jobs have challenges, but mostly it is up to the worker what they make of those challenges.
I think part of it is what could be described as a remnant of American classism. Among the middle class, there are still a lot of people who see getting a job as the only acceptable course in life. Anyone, but especially a middle class person, who seeks to find work that’s personally rewarding but does not involve getting a “real” job is regarded as a species of bum. It doesn’t help that some people who are basically bums use such pursuits as cover for the bumhood. I.e., the writers who never can be boethered to actually write anything, the band members who spend a lot of time practicing and smoking dope and are “gonna hit it big Real Soon Now” but have trouble finding and keeping gigs – that kind of bum. The problem is further compounded in fields like art, where nobody can tell who’s a bum and who’s an actual artist based on their output.
People who said “get a job” to artistically ambitious people are taking the easy way and assuming all people involved in non- 9 to 5 careers are bums. Like fundamentalism, it’s very attractive to those who like their morality cheap and easy.
As the sister of an “all eggs in one basket” musician, I can tell you that as much as I wanted my brother to become a successful musician, I knew the odds were against him. He’s now in his early 50s with no back-up plan for his golden years. It kills me to think what kind of life he will have because he didn’t attain his goal. He’s extremely talented, but that’s not the only ingredient to being successful in the entertainment biz.
That said, there’s nothing wrong with being an overpaid entertainer, per se. The problem lies with society and our skewed priorities. We think nothing of dropping a couple hundred bucks to watch a sports or musical event, but we have a shit-fit when it comes to paying doctors, scientists, or taxes so that the general populus can live a better life. We need to back away from the crack pipe a few paces and reevaluate what’s important to us.
What, uh, makes you think that entreprenuers, musicians, atheletes, or actors don’t “work”?
The thing is, they probably work harder, smarter, and longer than what you’re defining as a 9-5 job. Many of those people make sacrifices above and beyond what being an accounting clerk takes. I recall seeing an interview with Stevie Nicks where she wistfully remarked that because of the 24-hour, 365-day/year dedication needed for Fleetwood Mac, she gave up her chance to have children.
Yeah, she’s well paid. But it didn’t come w/o sacrifices above and beyond.
Same thing with atheletes - when was the last time you think Lance Armstrong sat down in front of the tube with a coke in one hand and a bag of chips in the other so he can have a Firefly marathon?
Actors are constantly on the job, 24/7. People like Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, etc etc etc are their jobs. If you are the product that your selling, and people follow you constantly while you’re shopping, taking pictures and asking for autographs, when are you ever off the job? If they lay somebody new, people know about it and pretty quickly. It’s even national news.
Ugh. Don’t tell me that sacrificing a “normal” life, being unable to sloth out at all, and having no personal life isn’t a “real job”, one that takes little effort. The amount of dedication needed to succeed at the levels you speak of means that the artists, etc actually have jobs they can’t get away from.
Well told. I have a friend who is a professional musician, but he does studio work and is able to work 9-5, have a wife and a home, and a retirement plan. He doesn’t WANT to be in the limelight (and face it…it’s frequently more suck than good times for the super-famous). He’s one of the few that has the best of both worlds. Do you really want to live in a bus or hotel for months at a time just so adoring fans can throw drugs at you when you’re at work?
Something not touched on yet, but I see as a real issue: People who want to achieve success in an art form often end up driven by pure ego, and that isn’t pleasant to be around. It takes a lot of risk to hang yourself out there and see if YOUR vision for YOUR art resonates with an audience. And sustaining your output can be incredibly tough as the distractions of life occur. Staying focused on your artistic vision, then, requires a focus and commitment to self which can often lead to screwed up relationships. When your art comes first, everyone else often comes second.
Picasso was known for: a) being a dick; and b) lifting ideas wherever he could find them - often alienating fellow-artist friends. I read an article in Rolling Stone describing how Jerry Garcia would discard relationships the minute they no longer helped him move his music forward. The Scorsese documentary on Dylan discusses the same thing.
So wanting to be famous and/or not have a “real” job, in and of themselves may be no big deal - but the focus required to realize your dreams often leads to a person becoming someone who doesn’t fit into normal relationships with people who aren’t so ego-driven…
My boyfriend is an independent filmmaker. Trust me, you haven’t seen any of his movies. (But if you’d like to, they’re at www.prettypennyproductions.com). He is by no means making a living off of his creative output.
So he does commercials, he does editing work, he tapes televangelists. He works in a field near what he wants to do so that he can do what he wants to do. There’s nothing wrong with that. If he just sat on his ass getting money from Mom and Dad to make Buddy Cop Show Season 2 (coming soon to an internet near you!), then there’s something wrong with that. Because Season 1 made exactly enough money to pay to enter itself into film festivals that it got rejected from.
How do you pay the bills? Easy. While these jobs may be kind of crappy, you can make decent money being a bartender, server, construction worker, temp worker, or substitute teacher. Many aspiring entertainers do those kind of jobs on the side. They won’t buy you a bmw, but they can pay the bills. My dad is trying to hook me up with a guy who’s doing really good in baseball, I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes it to major league one day, meanwhile he’s doing some construction work.
House? Nice car? Family? Not everyone wants those things, if they do, they may not be top priorities, especially if they’re young.
I have no problem with people who want to be famous for doing something well, or folks who want to be recognized for their skill, talent or hard work. It’s the people who aspire to be famous just for fame’s sake that I have a problem with.
Derek Jeter plays baseball well. I like Derek Jeter. He does his job, he’s a nice guy and he puts in a lot of effort. In my book, Derek Jeter deserves to be famous for that.
Paris Hilton, on the other hand, isn’t famous for working hard to be good at something. She’s famous for being a pretty heiress who does outrageous things (often bathed in the eerie green light of night-vision video). Perhaps you could argue that she’s famous for her fashion sense, but I’d argue the con side in that one. She’s really famous for what I would consider to be all the wrong reasons. Thus, I really have no respect for her desire to be famous.
