Saif Ali Shaik

July 4, 2021

Next phase of fame

I have always wondered how people in business like Elon Musk became celebrities. 

In the early days, rulers of kingdoms used to be celebrities. They were recognized for their discipline, bravery, and commitment to serve their people.

At the beginning of the industrial revolution, it's the inventors who were celebrities. They were recognized for their theories and inventions.

  • People who used to write letters were able to hear the voice of each other because Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone.
  • It took over 20 days to transit goods over 100 miles until James Watt invented the Steam engine, leading to Steam-powered trains.

Soon when Industrial Revolution 2.0 kicked in, fame took over inventors to businesspeople like Henry Ford. Ford came up with an affordable model where a community can imagine themselves using it to reduce daily effort. This also gave rise to the entertainment industry, where artists, singers, actors and came into play.

As of Industrial Revolution 3.0, people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates took up the stage as they reimagined a product for the personal computing industry. The community could imagine themselves using it to improve their accounting, businesses, and management using computers.

There are a couple of patterns we can learn here,

  1. It always the community around who will decide to give attention on their own terms. If the community doesn't understand, even though the invention is spectacular, no one gives attention. Nikola Tesla is an excellent example of his underrated history.
  2. It is always the information distributors like mainstream media who can bring attention to the topics they decide the community will know. 
  3. More or less, the community imagines their inventions, products to be beneficial to them in one way or another. So they admire, respect, and develop an interest in them.
  4. Over decades, the community evolves. They tend to pay no attention to inventions, products, or services they enjoy for granted. 
  5. Administrators like the government get attention for free. Because their decision impacts the aspects of the general community.

The Decade of 2020

Of everything we've discussed so far has always had a significant chunk of stardom that is always controlled by information distributors like National Media outlets. This Decade already saw how Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and LinkedIn have already joined the league. They've also created smaller groups where significant followers accumulate. For example, popular Youtube channels, TikTok stars, LinkedIn content creators, or even Instagram celebrities mean fame.

Elon Musk and Steve Jobs have outstanding story elements for the community to imagine the effort and enduring inspiration to associate themselves and pay attention to their companies' products.

Among the types of stardoms, the most apparent predictability comes with celebrities of the entertainment industry. If the generation likes a new music trend, videos, or content, the stars pop up out of nowhere. Likewise, they become obsolete quick enough as the same generation age, or new kind of content is not created regularly. 

People no longer listen to singers of the 1980s because this generation hasn't gone through the boredom of no-songs times. They need to hear something different; that's why bands like BTS are gaining popularity.

Tip: Just like platforms like LinkedIn has forced us to write stories fluently to stand out, and platform like Youtube has forced us to invest to photo editing software, mic, and studio set up; If Clubhouse were to be successful, imagine what strategy you need to be successful on this platform? 

CXOs ride the current fame journey.

CXOs mean leaders at C-Level like CEO, CMO, CFO, etc.,

Times have changed a lot. The startup's ecosystem is growing faster than ever in India. Businesses are finding newer ways of doing business. We are looking at Businesses at a different level than Entertainment as an industry because they profoundly impact the economy and world.

By now, you might have understood: Inventors, Creators, pure Businessmen, and now trend goes with CXOs who hail a cause. That is why causes like green energy, electric cars, reusable rockets have amazed a more significant chunk of the community. Consequently, Elon musk is renowned CEO.

Next phase of fame 

My best guess is Makers.

Makers are usually individual contributors to any team. They can be part of associates, developers, sales reps, product managers, HR generalists, etc. But on the condition, they control their work's success with good ownership.

Makers who are not just good at what they do, but really great at what they do. 

Makers thrive as I bet on the inverse of information control from the platform to the user. 

  • Unlike Facebook, Reddit doesn't curate the content by algorithms all alone. Users will opt-in to subreddits. 
  • Unlike Medium, substack doesn't recommend stories. Users are opt-in to writers on substack and hear from them as newsletters.

As users more and more choose the content they want to consume, great Makers by vertical will possess fame.
 
  • Great product managers sharing methodologies to build great products will create fame in the product management vertical.
  • Great developers sharing methodologies about writing communicable and scalable code will create fame in the development vertical.
  • Great designers sharing methodologies about building experiences will create fame in the design vertical.
  • Great movie makers sharing what makes them create great and inspiring scenes. 

About Saif Ali Shaik

Hey, I'm Saif. Writing is one of my favorite habits. I journal about my learnings for the world to read. Some appreciate it if that adds value. This page you are seeing is my only social media. Welcome to my World of shower thoughts!