Celebrities Try Harder

​Growing up, I've always wanted to be a celebrity, specifically a rapper. But as I saw that there were different types of celebrities; I wanted their lives too. There were comedians, chefs, producers, actors, voice actors, directors, writers, pro ball players, wrestlers, porn star, etc. I wanted to be them all. On some level, I still do want their lives. Rapping is looking like my best shot at becoming one of the rich and famous and I realized that early on. Music was something I always had a knack for. What I didn't have, was perspective. 

When you are a fan, the life of a celebrity looks ten times better than any life you could acquire as a successful nobody. To a certain extent, that's true. The problem with being an idolizing fan is that you only see the good stuff. Not only that, but you usually don't recognize someone until thousands or millions of other people acknowledge them first.  Obviously, that's what it means to be a celebrity, but that's not the whole picture. What you don't see, is the grind.

Most of you know what the grind is. You probably heard your favorite rapper say he started out poor so he had to hustle drugs to get by. We've all heard of the actress busting tables in LA while she awaits a callback from some team of movie execs for a part she auditioned for. You know the pro athlete that had to workout twice a day for years just to be good enough to tryout for the team. That's the grind. We HEAR about the grind, but we never actually SEE the grind. And this is what throws off our perspective. 

You may have seen someone early in their career before they became what they are today, but at that point, you more than likely missed the actual grind. You never see the hard work they put in. You never see them constantly fail. You never see them at the brink of completely giving up. You don't see the rejection, the bankruptcy, the homelessness, the jail time, the broken families, or the suicide attempts. All you see is the product of their determination. 

I say all of that to make this point. I hate when an average ass person tries to diminish the hard work put in by another by saying things like, "I'd have a body like that too if I could afford a personal trainer" or "It's easy to fuck a super model when you have a million dollars" or "I'm more talented than that guy; he just got lucky." Don't get me wrong, I understand hating on someone else's accomplishments because they're better than you. But talent means nothing if you don't have hard work to back it up.

Celebrities aren't inherently better than you. They become better than you by wanting to be better and then actually acting on that desire to be great. That's it. That action star didn't get his six pack from his trainer. He got it from working out and dieting. That singer may naturally have a good singing voice, but she's famous because she practiced her dance moves, performed at countless open mics and networked with the right people. That CEO of the billion dollar company didn't just inherit everything he has. He dropped out of college to pick up 3 part-time jobs so he could afford to build a prototype of an invention he imagined. Then he created a business plan and implemented it. There is nothing these people did that you couldn't. You just don't have their drive.

Quit acting like success falls out if the sky. Quit acting like the only difference between you and a celebrity you envy is dumb luck, good genes, inherited wealth or knowing the right people. The only difference between the elite and you is the fact that they try harder. You set a goal. They set a higher goal. You try. They try harder. You fail and give up on the 1st or 2nd attempt. They fail and continue failing until they succeed. Admit it. The only thing you've ever put 100% effort into is making excuses. No matter how glorious someone looks at the finish line, you'll never know how hard they had to work to get there unless you take a walk in their shoes.