Would you wanna be famous?

[Anonymous]

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

No, it's my worst nightmare now. I had a teeny slice of it in my little industry when I was younger doing interviews and showing up in magazines and whatnot. Even that was too much for me.

It negatively impacted my work since I was trying to make everyone happy while feeling like everyone is watching me. I also tend to take negative reviews too personally like when I read a negative review in an article mentioning my name, it didn't matter if 99/100 of the reviews were glowingly positive. I still ended up getting bothered by the one negative review and get all obsessed trying to make that one reviewer happy even if it came at a cost to making everyone else less happy.

I enjoy having lots of friends but friends support you no matter what you do. Customers and reviewers don't. They turn on you really fast if they don't like what you're doing.

[Asker]

Nobody ever believes me when I say I don't want to be famous. The easy money is the only positive and the rest is negatives starting with the lack of privacy.

[Asker]

Remember one can be an expert in their domain or whatever without being mass famous.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

I think you're very wise that way. In my case, it just totally hindered my work and started working towards a downward spiral.

I was one of those one-hit wonder types (maybe two or three in my case) in my nerdy industry (VFX software). So the first few products I published were massive hits and that's how I ended up being in the spotlight.

Yet in retrospect, I think the reason those products were hits is because I just made whatever I thought was cool at the time, no pressure. I didn't have much in the way of customers or reviewers yet.

Then when I got some of the spotlight, I stopped trying to make what I thought was cool so much as what everyone else wanted, trying to do this balancing act of taking into account every single major complaint and suggestion (even though they often conflicted with each other) and trying to find some way to satisfy everyone. And my work suffered terribly.

So I stepped out of the spotlight and into the background and my work improved again, and that's how I like it now. I prefer to be in the background.

[Asker]

You can do just about anything without being worldwide famous. The singers you know are probably really motivated by fame not artistic inspiration *eyeroll*

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

I wonder sometimes like I don't think I was motivated by fame or wealth so much. I just didn't resist the offers for interviews and presentations and things of this nature. I suspect a lot of people end up getting trapped that way even if they had no interest in the spotlight originally.

True celebrities have it orders of magnitudes worse than me as I see it. I just became a name among a very nerdy visual effects industry. It wasn't like I had paparazzi chasing me around, but still I felt so exposed and my level was nothing compared to real celebrities like famous actors and singers.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

One thing if I did my life over again: I would have gone under a business name and not my real name for my products. The first product I published online was a free software and paper I published while being a university student, and I just thought it'd be handy for some people. I didn't expect it to become so famous that it would end up being used in major Hollywood films and that people would be writing my name in books on Visual Effects techniques. So I ended up getting stuck with the spotlight attached to my real name, and I think I could have detached myself personally better if it was attached to a business name or alias instead.

[JustinTheGreat]

I’ve always fantasized about being famous but I don’t think the reality of it is as fun as it seems.

you constantly have fans, paparazzi, and media all up in your business. You’ll never have privacy again.

[rachel776]

i work for a famous person which i like very much and i would not want to be famous myself

[virtualwasp]

no. i already have people spreading lies about me

[superchan2011]

No. I would love to be rich but I don't care about being famous. I'm introverted by nature so I would prefer to have a private life with a SO and a few friends and family.

[JacobJordan]

Absolutely not. I know what fame entails and I do not have the patience or tolerance to deal with that.

[slatyb]

I would rather be wealthy and completely unknown to the public.

[Anonymous]

Not really, but respected would be nice.

[handsomelad70]

Yes, but I'd be wary of the pitfalls re. surrendering my privacy.

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

No. Glad that dream didn't come true though I wished for it when I was a kid.

[exitseven]

No, I what to be rich.

[Account]

It is not for me.

[ChicoFromThe305]

Not my cup of tea

[laly520]

nope

[Alex-Snow]

No desire really

[JayBones]

Fuck no.

[TonyMetal___86]

No thanks

[MrZameer]

No way. Not at all

[tasqueen]

Yeah definitely

[noohair]

No way

[Anonymous]

No, just rich.