Small business owners are contestants in the real American Idol
May 30th, 2006
0 votes
I never watched American Idol. But I’m sure many of you have. I want to know if the show has anything to teach us about running our businesses and our lives. Without ever watching, here are a couple of things that I surmised from the media hype:
1) Bullies get a lot of attention. They make themselves feel important by belittling others.
2) The best person doesn’t always win.
3) One bad day can make a difference.
4) Losing what seems to be the whole enchilada, in retrospect may be the best thing that can happen.
5) The American public votes for candidates of all sorts for all the wrong reasons.
6) Competition is really fun to watch and be part of.
7) It makes you want to get into the game.
What do you think?
June 2nd, 2006 at 2:16 pm
Those are great observations without ever having the seen the show. I have seen it off and on. I think there is a difference between making it once (winning the competition) and having a consistent career (or business, in our case.)
The ones who have won and gone on to huge careers (Kelly Clarkson, and to a lesser extent Clay Aiken (who I believe did not win but was a finalist) is that they had talent, preparation and then filled a niche.
One of them, Fantasia, was really talented and had an extreme amount of "cowbell"–she was pretty unusual, although fascinating. I have not heard any of her music on the radio, but they are making a movie about her life. It may be that she is too unusual to fit a niche (or, more likely, that the music business forces people into the niches that it wants to promote).
Another gal (Diana DiGarmo) came in second, but had a ton of pluck and energy. I forget exactly what she is up to, but I recall hearing that she had found a good niche for her talents (I believe she is in a Broadway musical).
So the lesson I would draw is that to have staying power, you need to fill a commercial niche as well as being talented and well prepared.