A wise man once said to me:
‘Aways remember that this world stamps on weakness and cruelly ignores the bland’.
At the time I thought it was a bit of a downer, but he had a point. It is those who take things to an extreme, who suffer to the point of insanity for their art, for their goals, who are rewarded with the greatest fame and fortune.
In 1996 Dave Gahan, lead singer of the British electronic rock band, ‘died’ for two minutes in a hospital in Los Angeles after overdosing on speedballs (a blend of cocaine and heroin). Gahan had been sinking deeper into addiction, as well as deeper into his art, in his crazed pursuit of becoming the greatest rock star that ever lived.
He crashed and burned. Fortunately he was revived. He went into recovery, got better.
Now, 22 years later, Depeche Mode are on one of the biggest-grossing, most profitable tours that any rock band has undertaken ever. At the end of last year they sold out the Hollywood Bowl for four consecutive nights, the first time that’s ever been done. In the first nine months of 2017 they sold 1.27m tickets – more than Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber or Bruno Mars – despite never having had a number one hit in the US.
There’s a lot to be said about Depeche Mode, creativity, and how they have maintained such incredible popularity over 38 years, but the tl:dr version is that they’ve carved out their own unique sound and style, persisted with it, and taken things to the extreme.
I am not, of course, condoning drug taking or trying to glorify it. Nor am I suggesting that Gahan’s using in any way improved the band’s music (actually, it nearly tore them apart). But look, whatever your view, here is a man who has taken his life to extremes. To the edge of death and back. That is reflected in the passion and power of the songs he sings, and it is precisely for this that his band are so loved.
Here’s the thing. Many people can achieve a bland, vanilla sort of fame. We see it all the time with reality TV stars. But if you want to be adored – so that millions of people want to see you, to eat up whatever you put out, and will stick with you through decades – then you have to be prepared to take being YOU to the extreme, whatever that may mean in your particular case.
I can’t tell you exactly what to do because I’m not you, and I don’t know your exact objectives or situation. But let me tell you this. Whoever you are, you need to show it fearlessly and courageously to the world.
And you’re not going to try to sugarcoat it. No. You’re going to take it as far as you can. And you’re going to take your tribe on a journey with you, into the centre of whoever you are, and whatever you suffer.
If you want to build a personal brand that sets you free and pays you big money year after year – and I’m talking fuck-you money here, the kind of money that lets you quit your job and travel the world as you create content – then you’re going to have to get real. You’re going to have to strip yourself down to the essentials of what it is to be you. You’re going to have to fight with your demons – in public. You’re going to have to scare yourself. You’re going to have to go as low as you can to rise again and soar high above the heads of the beige and forgettable folks who don’t have the courage to do what you’re doing.
You’re going to have to take it to the extreme.
Icons take things to extremes. Dave Gahan, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse, Francis Bacon, Bukowski, Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort in Wolf of Wall Street – the singers, artists, writers and characters that we love – and I mean really love – are the most extreme.
There is huge power in taking it to the extreme, and huge honesty too. For people who are extreme – in their way of life and in the art they produce – are almost always more honest than those who aren’t. They are simply doing what they actually want to do. They are – to coin a phrase – living the lives they want, not the lives they think they should.
It’s been said before that fame is less about what you have and more about what you have missing. Your flaws, in other words. What you need to do is revel in those flaws. Amplify them. Make them bigger than the sky and flaunt them fearlessly to your audience. And go to the extreme with it.
For it is only by being truly and radically yourself that you will stand out from the masses. And it is only by standing out from the masses that you will build an audience. And it is only through building an audience that you have a meaningful personal brand. And it is only by having a meaningful personal brand that you can achieve freedom and make a living through the art that you produce.
Start living how you want to live. And start creating content – art – that tells others about it. Then publish it so the world can see it. And then repeat. Your tribe will notice, they will come to you, and they will stay.
By the way, if you want to read more about my thoughts on standing out from the masses (‘radical differentiation’) then pick up a copy of my book How to Be An Assh*le. It covers this in detail and it packed full of actionable techniques you can start using today.
Plus, if you haven’t already then do sign up for my DAILY email here.
