Fame

Fame is such a funny thing. For the last ten years I\’ve had sites on the web, they\’ve all been attached to the thing called fame. Even when I first began I had television shows from around the world wanting to interview me, \”fans\” emailling me like crazy and money being offered for this and that (even Jones Soda wanted to do a deal).It became too much for me because I wasn\’t doing what I was doing for attention – I just did it for fun. So I took my site down and went into hiding so to speak.WHen I came back to the web I had a new address and didn\’t mention it but again, the site became popular. And as I created new sites each one of them became almost instantly popular with absolutely no marketing on my end.I began to become recognised when out, received hundreds of emails a day (good and bad) and lots of media attention. There were sites dedicated to gossiping about me and my career but I generally paid no attention to it. One thing I learned is that fame is not the goal and has absolutely nothing to do with me. If I start to bank on it on any level, I\’d become addicted to it – I\’ve seen it happen with others and knew it wasn\’t pretty.It\’s one of the reasons why I\’ve never had comments after entries, often do not share an email address and take my sites down several times per year. It\’s not about what the end result is, it\’s about the process for me. If I don\’t enjoy it, if I don\’t feel I\’m doing good, then I don\’t need it. Outside opinion doesn\’t change how I feel.As I begin to create a new business with a business partner and employees, I\’m really thinking about what my intentions are with what I\’m doing. It\’s important to me to have creative and financial freedom but its equally important for me to do things that give to me as well as others. Fame doesn\’t play any role in that. Adoration, attention, it\’s not the goal.I share this because I often find people searching for the fame and attention (and I receive a lot of email from people asking how to get famous or well-known sites) and I think it\’s so side. Fame is just a byproduct that can\’t be created so much by the person wanting to create it. Even more so, it can\’t be controlled.I have several friends who are very well known in the land of music and I\’ve become acquainted with a lot of A-list celebrities while living here in LA. I\’ve seen the benefits and the negatives of being famous and knowing famous people and I have to say, personally, that those whose intention it is to be famous aren\’t the kind of people that are actually great people and whose careers generally don\’t withstand the test of time. It\’s the people who just do what they love and have the fame created outside of themselves that are amazing, authentic and have lasting power. They do what\’s in them to do regardless of who is (or isn\’t) loving them.I\’ve also seen people who started to get a little attention and how it\’s changed their work (acting, music or writing). How they no longer create from within but create with an audience in mind. They became trapped into a pattern of doing things – things that \”work\” for attention. If they try something new and it isn\’t well received then instead of continuing to push the envelope and evolve, they go back to doing what is safe. Their intents become hindered by fame. They need it more than they need to be authentic.The fame that my sites and myself have received has been global, male and female, young and old. There\’s something that I can\’t even explain or understand that seems to connect with other people and creates some kind of attention that I don\’t set out to create. I think one of the reasons why is become I\’m not setting out to do it – it just happens. I have the freedom to keep evolving and being myself because I generally don\’t pay attention to who people think I am. I don\’t get trapped by it or feel the need to give into outside attention, become something, feed it. I\’d keep going regardless if this site had 90,000 hits a day or 4. And I\’m launching my new company to create projects in all mediums regardless of how I\’ll be perceived. Because if I don\’t make myself happy, it doesn\’tmatter if someone else wants to.