Pursuing Stardom Or Personal Excellence

Ever since Edward Bernay invented his "science" of public relations in the 1920s, many people have jumped on the PR bandwagon to turn themselves into celebrities. The waves they ride on can be summarised by a comment from Bernay, “While most people respond to their world instinctively, without thought, there exist an 'intelligent few' who have been charged with the responsibility of contemplating and influencing the tide of history. A highly educated class of opinion-molding tacticians are continuously at work, analyzing the social terrain and adjusting the mental scenery from which the public mind, with its limited intellect, derives its opinions."

I've just read about two upcoming violin virtuosos. The Scottish woman, a Menuhin Institute (The proverbial Harvard fro Violinists) student, openly admits that her priority is to make music not to become a star. She wants to explore her talent and achieve whatever she can possibly achieve by becoming the best she can be. So, she spends all her time practising, bettering her play day by day.

The other woman, another upcoming virtuoso from Vancouver, has decided to take a different direction. She also practises a bit, but her main focus is to become a celebrity. So to achieve her goal, she works hard on her image and hires the best PR agencies and spin-doctors to turn her into a celebrity.

Some people are obsessed with becoming celebrities and winding up at the Oprah show. Some “just” want to do their best to achieve mastery in their professions.

Who do you think laypeople recognise as the greatest violin virtuoso ever lived? Niccolo Paganini.

But who is the virtuoso “the industry” recognises as the “master of masters”? A Hungarian guy called Joseph Joachim, who is totally unknown for most laypeople.

The world of classical music is similar to professional firms. Some firms do everything they can to become celebrities by blowing their own trumpets and manipulating their markets. The others focus on doing high-quality, honest, and ethical client work, so happy clients could spread the word.

Many firms maintain fairly large PR departments for the sole role of seeking out opportunities where the senior partners can perform some uncensored self-aggrandisement. And of course all this is done at the expense of client work and internal standards.

The objective is no longer doing world-class work, but using various channels, screaming to the world that, “We are a world-class firm doing world-class work.”

And here we can think of Arthur Andersen and some other firms. They threw a hell of a lot of money at the wall of branding and some stuck. Actually, in the case of Andersen, quite a lot stuck. They built a nipplepiercingly brilliant brand. But they did it at the expense of internal standards. They did it by violating their values to their clients and their people. But that wasn’t important because the game was to become a celebrity. The idea of becoming a world-class accounting firm was pushed to the back burner. (Actually it was probably pushed off the cooker altogether as an unimportant topic.)

And Andersen had its moment of fame for a short while. And then it’s gone.

I reckon the same will happen to the violinist from Vancouver. The media, using the standard manipulation tricks (read “Trust Us, We’re Experts” by Sheldon Rampton and John Sauber) will help her to achieve her goal, and turn her into a celebrity. But will she ever become a world-class violinist other violinists recognise, respect and want to play with? That's yet to see.

A Swiss skier, Pirmin Zürbriggen was the candidate for the gold medal in the combined slalom at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic games. All he had to do was to complete his second run. But as he took off, he started pushing the envelope… Pushing… pushing and more pushing. Then he fell and blew his hopes for the gold medal.

And the question came up: Considering that he was already 99.9% of the champion, was it necessary to push so hard?

Later on there was some speculation about his action, and a ski instructor who knew him said that Zürbriggen didn’t ski for the gold medal or world championship title. He skied to bring out his personal best. For Zürbriggen it was not about merely achieving certain goals (win the gold medal) but achieving his maximum potential.

And this is the question you have to ask yourself regarding your firm. Are you seeking a celebrity status or are you building a world-class firm?

Do you want the media recognise you as a world-class celebrity, or do you want your clients and peers to recognise you as a world-class master of your chosen profession?

The media recognition is like a shooting star and it’s good for your ego, but the peer and client recognition last for a long time and good for your heart (Not to mention your piggy bank). You also know that whatever you’ve earned, you’ve earned it in return for your contribution, not as a result of manipulation.