flickr thanks: dirkjanranzijn
What makes some people love the spotlight and others loathe it? This is a question I’m wholly unqualified to speculate about, because my whole life I’ve stepped outside the spotlight. I don’t talk a lot when in a group; I don’t dance in the middle of the circle. But I know that many people love to do so.
I wonder why these people grew up to be so inclined. Was it that their parents encouraged them to be performers? Did they have great experiences in the spotlight as children? Perhaps there is a genetic disposition.
I’m also curious as to how to affects people’s success and happiness in life. My intuition is to say that people that love the spotlight tend to be more successful. The visibility they gain probably outweighs the larger risk they face of showing their flaws. I think that people understand flaws better than they understand reticence. My take on modern success is that visibility is critical: in politics, retail branding, service branding, academics, it seems almost that quantity is as important as quality. But visibility can be fleeting. What, then, do spotlight lovers feel? As a spotlight shirker, I have an advantage – I’m not bothered when nobody seems to give a twit. But I could see how it would be really hard for others.
So, why do some people love the spotlight so much, and are these people ultimately happier?
4 Comments
While I agree that visibility is crucial to modern success, I don’t think people who love attention tend to be any more successful than people who don’t love the attention. I suppose if you love attention, you are more inclined to build a giant homemade flying-saucerlike balloon measuring at 20 feet-long, let it loose into the open sky, tell the world-wide media that your young spawn is in that very balloon, setting off nation-wide alarm and thus, be more likely to be featured on television. Ultimately, the value of quality and quantity broils down to the question of what you define as success: some people simply want unadulterated attention, while others are more discretionary.
For the more discerning types, I think a natural love for attention simply provides an extra energy or desire for eyes and ears that introverts may not feel as strongly, which happens to luckily coincide with our culture’s emphasis on publicity. But whether they’re actually successful depends on how they guide and use that extra energy effectively to produce the desired result, just as an introvert’s success depends on their ability to build that extra energy within themselves. If anything, I’d say that introverts have a leg up because they might be more careful, measured and disciplined in garnering the attention they want, whereas extroverts may lack as much control.
As for happiness, how you can say a spotlight-lover is happier than spotlight-hater when their definitions of happiness are probably very different?
Oh, and by the way, I like how you chose a sad clown man with a red nose, half the top of his head missing, pleading eyes that scream “Love me! Love me!”, holding up a sad little flower picture to represent, I assume, a spotlight-lover. Look at him. Does he look happy to you?
Wow! My comment is longer than any of your posts on your Frawgblawg so far!
How embaarsing.
Thanks for the comment!
I had to decide between the silhouettes of a crowd against spotlights and yon clown. I just thought this was a nicer looking picture.
I really like how I have huge pictures on my blog. I hope you do too!
Yeah, the photos look really good. The last picture of falafel balls made me want to eat them, and you know how I feel about falafels.