What makes a Superstar?

I've often found myself wondering what differentiates these famous people? Some are stars, but some are simply super-stars. The road to stardom is undoubtedly not without risks. The most talented, hardworking and intelligent find their way on this road. But only a few on this road become what I call "super-stars". One commonality in all these people are that they are in the news more often than "stars". Going by the doctrine, "any publicity is good publicity", it should be fairly simple for stars to jump on the publicity bandwagon to attain "super-star" status.

But it is not!

Superstars sustain their publicity for prolonged periods. They have a cult following that is often willing to thwart any attempt by external forces (people or organizations) to dethrone the superstar. Based on my observations, I have come up with five things that differentiate these people from rest of the popular crowd.

1. Vocal about Feelings: Rarely you would find a super-star that has not expressed him/her self, satisfaction, delight, anger and various other emotions.

2. Fantasy life-style: Please forgive me but humble people are not and can never be superstars. The life of a super-star is a fantasy for others living on "planet earth". This fantasy of an un-grounded life is what makes them exciting for the common man.

3. Erring: Perfection is boring. You need to err to be human. Mistakes made by popular people make them easier to relate to. A noble-laureate is no super-star. They are too perfect and border on boring.

4. Ability to resurrect: While these people make mistakes, its the ability to "come-back" that makes their stories inspiring to the common man. The popularity of "rags to riches" stories is an indicator of this phenomenon.

5. Great Work: There is no substitute for it!

Giving the finger to a scripted life!

It's crazy to take jobs just because they look good on your resume. That's like saving sex for your old age. ~ Warren Buffet. You have plans for your life, career etc. You've built an entire script but what is this based on? Scott at Ted talks about how almost 80% of the people around the world don't like the job they do. In his career, he found one day that most of the job he did was automated by his competitors. Building the resume was clearly not way forward. It was during that time he he heard the quote by warren buffet, " It's crazy to take jobs just because they look good on your resume. That's like saving sex for your old age ". This was when he left his job. While there are know universities, which talk about finding your passion, Scott talks about a lens that can help in finding the job we love.

Twitter and the world of hate - Delhi Gang Rape

Common wisdom says that venting out reduces frustration. Twitter, Facebook, and blogs help us achieve the same. While what normally starts as a "venting out" experience, I suspect is turning out to be an anguish enhancer. When I look at trending topics on twitter all what I see is a world of "Hate". Small pieces of hate messages turn out to be a big collective bunch of hate. Take the case of Delhi gang rape and some ill-minded comments of politicians and spiritual gurus. What started as scattered bickering remarks against a comment made by "Asaram" has now become a full fledged ball of rage. This rage was "non-directional", had no agenda and was oriented towards sarcasm and wit. While Delhi gang rape highlights poor governance, societal problems and problems of law and order, venting out on a forum that accumulates the frustration by many such people only adds to the low well-being. It is time we use some discretion and post messages that...

Twitter vs. News - Effectiveness in building relations

Social Media has been termed as an effective way to build relationships. Brands are trying to harness this capability by building social presence on this new media. Celebrities today account for the maximum amount of followers on the web with twitter being a fine example for this. But is this new media effective in creating relationships with this vast list of followers, which celebrities often tend to have? In an interesting research by Lee and Jang , they explore the effectiveness of celebrities in building social presence on new media. They compare twitter and a news website to check the relative effectiveness of enhancing social presence. While the traditional PR machinery used by celebrities might give them news coverage, they contend that their tweets can reduce the barrier of relational development as compared to a news website. Their findings are counter-intuitive and very interesting.

Economy of Social - Social Media Tips, Marketing and Business

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