Efe Omorogbe State of Mind: Can’t be humble? Okay be professional

By Efe Omorogbe

 

Humility is a virtue. It is a trait that amplifies greatness and commands admiration. A deft balance of high achievement and humility creates a vibe around a personality that attracts people and commands their admiration, sometimes even love.

Everyone wants to feel good about themselves. A successful and genuinely humble person leaves everyone feeling good about themselves through each encounter and it is this feel good factor that reinforces a sense of admiration, love, devotion and loyalty that the personality enjoys. For artistes and sports personalities whose earning power and market position is determined by the quality of performance and level of popularity, it is essential to maintain a clear head and one’s sense of humility.

Essential as it is, humility is not an easy trait to maintain particularly in showbiz. Success can quite easily become an intoxicant. As a practitioner becomes more successful, there’s the temptation to literally start believing one’s own hype. Great artistic performances cause mass hysteria and earn praise. Praise is usually followed by patronage and patronage delivers income, sometimes beyond the wildest dreams of the newbie star.

More often than not, success, the very prize that fueled years of grueling preparation and huge sacrifice ironically becomes the undoing of the artiste.

This phenomenon is by no means limited to the business of entertainment but it is within the confines of this industry that I have garnered work experience and studied closely how the inability to manage success, most times painfully limited success, has damaged a good number of pretty bright talents with otherwise great prospects.

It would have been perhaps, easier to relate with for the primary target audience of this piece -industry personalities and new entrants- to present case studies to illustrate my positions but I’m first and foremost, a talent manager and brand builder. Next to these I am an insider and colleague before a columnist at thenet.ng so the identity of the personalities who have provided inspiration for this article will be protected and no names will be mentioned.

I consider it a duty to use this platform to share my opinion on this very important issue because I’m of the belief that it would be of benefit to someone out there. If the current hit makers are too set in their ways or distracted to pay mind to the this conversation, there are a bunch of youngsters on the verge, waiting their turn for a stint under the spotlight. Here’s something that may be helpful along the way.

What humility does for you:

Though usually perceived in an artiste’s interaction with and attested to by others, the artiste himself (or herself) is the primary beneficiary of the fruits of humility. I’m talking about genuine humility here and not some false ‘eye-service-niceness’ crap.

Humility allows the artiste to have a fairly objective view of the quality of his work and his place side by side his contemporaries or the competition. At no risk to his self confidence, a humble artiste is able to clearly assess his position in the market and acknowledge the strengths of others in the running. He is even able to go one better by admiring deserving competition and adopting particular work strategies that have proven helpful to others.

Where an artiste isn’t quite able to personally adopt this fairly objective perspective of himself and his work, humility enables him pay attention to the opinion of his team members who are better placed to see things as they really are. It is indeed humility that encourages a star to keep close to himself, people who can look him in the eye and tell him the truth, albeit bitter. It is humility that equips a superstar with the ability to accept constructive criticism from fans and the media and to even scrutinize not-so-constructive criticism for any information that may be helpful going forward.

I once asked a superstar acquaintance of mine who left a group to pursue a successful solo career what prompted the decision to bounce and she replied,

‘I saw the game changing. I noticed that some of the new entrants were bringing heat of a higher intensity to the game and repeatedly tried to get the attention of my crew members. They waved my promptings aside time and again and reiterated their belief that we were untouchable. I knew we weren’t untouchable. In fact, I knew we weren’t working hard enough and recognized we were running the risk of falling off but no one seemed willing to listen. It was at that point that I decided I wasn’t going to sink with this ship and jumped’.

Humility compels one to respect other people. This is a powerful ingredient for success in showbiz. A star act that is respectful of others tends to work better with well-meaning management to deliver top quality service to the public. He is respectful of his fans and it shows in the way he applies himself in preparation and delivery of performances. He is usually a delight for promoters, agency and brand personnel to work and vibe with and therefore enjoys repeat patronage time and again.

I have been in production meetings where certain artistes’ names pop and the mood in the room turns sour. I have seen booking agents decline to hire certain acts because they do not want to be responsible for issues that may arise. There have been instances when a partner had suggested an artiste for consideration for a deal and everyone whose opinion was sought retorted that we shouldn’t even think about it because this minimally visible artiste was a nightmare to work with. There have been times when colleagues of mine have found it easier to guide and direct an A List star than a class D newbie.

There is an Igbo proverb that says ‘When the gods want to destroy a man, they first make him mad’. Perhaps nowhere else is this maxim more relevant than in the entertainment industry. The fall of most successful artistes begin at the point where they begin to see themselves as infallible. They start by ascribing every success recorded to their own talent, vision, ideas, effort, charisma and divine positioning. The contribution of everyone else in the team becomes less and less significant in their eyes. In fact, every great result is earned by them and every not-so-good result is blamed on the label, management, producer, publicist or someone else. Never himself. He starts asking himself, ‘What do I need these guys for anyways? To take a slice of MY money and just keep ‘dulling’ me abi?’ He starts resenting his team members, particularly those who aren’t keen to suck up to him and tell him only what he wants to hear. He starts withdrawing from his true friends.

Then he starts losing touch with reality. Every song he records is da bomb to him. Every performance is the ish. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a hater, an enemy. Before long, he starts falling off for real. If he’s lucky, he realizes in good time and tries to make amends. If he can’t find the humility to do that, he fades off, gradually. Then completely.

It takes humility to recognize and acknowledge the role of your producer, writer or support vocalist and wisdom to maintain these relationships even when you are obviously the big name. It takes humility to recognize the strength of other less celebrated members of one’s crew to resist the temptation to go solo too quickly just because the fans and media seem to be devoting the lion’s share of attention to you. I’m sure, more than one leading figure would have been unpleasantly surprised that some lesser celebrated member of their defunct group actually went on to record bigger successes as solo acts after their break up.

And then of course, humility draws people towards you and puts you at a good place for support, push and patronage. Don’t believe the money-makes-the-world-go-round crap. People, love makes the world go round.

You don’t have to be Humble. Being Professional would do:

Like I pointed out earlier, humility isn’t the commonest trait to have, nor the easiest virtue to cultivate. A lot of people do not have the capacity to be humble. And please don’t confuse niceness with humility.  For a myriad of reasons ranging from psychological inadequacies to a lack of understanding of the true dynamics of life and living, certain people are not able to grow a mind and heart where high achievement and humility can coexist. To this group my recommendation is thus: “Don’t Be Humble. Be Professional”.

I often tell my clients and friends that nobody does stardom for a living. At least, nobody I know. As a star artiste, what you do for a living is offer recording, performance and appearance services through your label/management to the public- basically. The buzz, the money, the attention, the admiration and the groupies are but perks for performing your basic duty satisfactorily. Be professional. Focus on delivering on your task satisfactorily and the perks will keep coming. Fail to deliver quality music in terms of recording and live performances, fail to show up on time and well prepared for appearances, fail to keep your brand and image attractive to the fans and by extension the corporations and well, watch your relevance wear thin.

Hello superstar, truth is, much as it breaks your heart, you’re technically, not really, special. Just like the hot shot executive, doctor, lawyer, banker, you are replaceable. Probably more easily so because of the fierceness of the competition in your industry.

The executive retains the fat salary/allowances and all the perks like the driver, cook, security guard, nice house and all that good stuff on the company’s account as long as he delivers value that justifies the spend. The minute his performance level drops, the perks disappear- and reappear with the next exec. So be professional. Spend less time and energy on being a star and keep your focus on your ability to deliver quality above and beyond everyone else.

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