Real stars are original.
They are inspired by and moved by and informed by other art, culture, poets, writers, leaders – YET… they are totally, radically, uniquely themselves. They don’t imitate.
Many worthy stars are never recognized, and others do something, usually for a long time, with only a little recognition. You get the feeling they’d do it whether anyone was watching, or not.
Others go big – take big stages, draw millions of sales, become household names and references.
But what I love about a David Bowie, for instance, is that he expressed despite disagreement or finger pointing or rejection. He said what he had to say in the way he had to say it. Masculine. Feminine. Androgynous. In Spandex.
That’s brave. That’s rebellious! And that was before digital had the power to take your weirdness and multiply it – in seconds. He did it despite….whatever resistance was there for him.
A real star leaves you with a message, a question or a thought-provoking dream. You can buy it or not, play it or not, read it or not. They’re going to say it whether you’re listening, or not.
As a business owner, you can’t take “promotion” off the table entirely because essentially you’d be muting your message. But what if you just changed the intention from, “how can I sell this?” to “how am I going to express myself today?”
It’s a little more artful.
Long live Bowie. A rebel worth remembering.