HAS-BEENS, NEVER BEENS AND
Jimmy Ruffin asked in song “What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted?” which had me prompting the question, “What Becomes Of The Has-Beens?”or worse, “What Becomes Of The Never-Beens?”
These are all seemingly very valid questions that come flooding to mind when perhaps wistfully wondering how a fraud and felon rebuilt his brand personality pock marks to be voted in TWICE as the President of the United States and SURVIVE despite lying, being
utterly incompetent and geographically challenged.
I believe that Roger Ailes definitely helped to create the Donald Trump brand by giving him a playbook from which to work, and speak in a language they would understand to a fan base that often reminds me of some of the Neanderthals in Gary Larson’s Far Side cartoons.
These days, and when I take short trips, especially around the region to see how the other half live and often mix with those in the racing world in Australia and the not so great unemployed who have set up camp on LinkedIn from where they can paint themselves out to be anything and anyone- even royalty or being some online dukedom with various bibs and bobs of land.
Asia is fertile ground to “do” an Incredible Mr Ripley and be whatever door of opportunity allows you in and offers you the audience you must have to be who you’re not.
Over the many decades spent in Hong Kong, the city went through almost endless celebrity chefs, celebrity hairstylists and anyone else who had something going for them that gave them “celebrity status”.
All this celebritydom was around the time of the television series “Miami Vice”, and before “digital creators” and “entrepreneurs” launched themselves onto Facebook, which really is a breeding ground for those who can be anyone without being the real deal.
Peaky Blinders are very much on High Alert when meeting those who might have had some relevance back in the day and built a reputation around what one thought they owned during much simpler times and when some of us were sucked into that MTV vortex of empty headed space where one could be impressed by a dormant Wix website or an embossed name card saying you were anything you wanted to be.
I have met so many VIP Ambassadors to Lithuania, Moldova and Prussia etc which appeared to impress those Eastern European girls in Hong Kong working as dancers and escorts at upmarket places like Club BBoss.
These girls might have been expensive handbags to take out and test drive, but they were academically smart and were always doing the math. They knew their ROI and were well aware that if you knew what was going on, there would be a win-win situation.
With the world having been turned upside down as some supposed power players found out around three years ago, not everyone who wears a bedsheet over them is a sheik worth billions.
Those around these people are usually a carefully chosen cast and looking at opportunities and then creating what’s needed, usually through smoke and mirrors. And if both sides are blowing smoke up their backsides, the odds are both sides know someone else they can sweet talk and take to the cleaners, because there’s a another sucker born every minute.
As with any business model, “The Art Of The Grift” is evolving or dissolving with KOLs and “influencers” and also brand new opportunities for the grift to evolve, because the world is in the midst of The Age Of Stupidity and there’s a more cautious approach by those with the experience to have read the tea leaves.
Others are busy drowning in artificial intelligence because they believe that this is their future and they can’t be left out in the dung of the past.
Monkey-see-monkey-do thinking are allowed to continue and its not a results oriented strategy. These are as hackneyed as middle aged cabaret singers in hotel venues singing a setlist from around twenty years ago.
Without giving too much away, below was part of a conversation with a very much financially independent songstress/diva and business person speaking to a couple of concert promoters from America whose name had quite some influence a few years ago. Not anymore.
Listening to her, it was obvious that some people don’t have short memories. They just don’t think. They have watched the cards being dealt and weren’t looking at or counting them or without listening to what what my friend was saying m. They should have because she was laying down new rules.
“In China, I am not the opening act for anyone including any supposed
big name international star”, she said. “If I am to even consider any offer, this artist opens for me, because I have millions more fans in China and the region than them.
“I also have my own multi media marketing company with teams and offices around the world with their own business models, different business streams and business partners in the tech sector.
“I’m not being arrogant. I am just looking out for number one: Me and I am not interested in doing anything that has been done before.
“As Hans has been saying for almost a decade, the cheeseburger or the wontons or the dim
sum need new spicy sauce for audiences and the media and sponsors for there to be something new, and maybe how to take only the best of the past and KNOW it can be something new again”.
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