RIP Liam Payne 1993-2024

RIP Liam Payne 1993-2024

A few lessons from a famous unknown stranger…

I often ponder… How well do you really want to be publicly known?

It’s a constant struggle for many between being public enough to reach enough people for their business and impact and private enough to retreat and energise…

What I learnt is there is a way to do both…

Be famous in the smallest circle possible and ideally where your future clients and customers hang out…

Then… be famous in their eyes…

For me personally… I am glad I’m famous in small circles…

(And really most people get to know my story in private conversations… some people say it’s like I have lived 40 lives…)

Full disclosure…

I didn’t even know who One Direction were when they came over to my place…

I hadn’t heard of the band but at the time they were number 1 on the charts in 18 countries…

Yup, these young 18 year olds were that famous! (This was about 13 years ago)

Yup, proud to say not my demographic…

But I remember thinking that these 2 kids were polite, grateful, courteous and determined…

I didn’t know who they were, but they obviously had huge appeal to their target audience…

And that was all that mattered…

In their case they were just characters in a bigger system and this post is not going anywhere near that topic!

However, I remember thinking at the time they seemed humble and were enjoying not being recognised…

They were just normal people for a few hours…

They borrowed my boards, wetshirts, shorts and walked out the back gate to the empty surf and their highlight, besides the ocean was being unnoticed…

Anonymous for a while…

Normal for a while…

Liam in particular was so determined out in the surf…

Taking off on any waves and dusting off and paddling back out there…

And… word got back to me they spoke of this surf as the highlight of their 3 month tour…

So 2 things I learnt for myself that day…

First…

Know who your audience is and focus on being famous in their eyes… no one else matters… and nor does anyone else’s opinion

Second…

To aim to be comfortable being a big celebrity in small circles so that you can be anonymous in your place of rest and recharge…

It’s a real thing…

The constant battle of how much to share online so that you can be famous but not to the point where it becomes a burden…

The dance of showing your face and character, while also keeping a level of privacy…

It’s an individual dance of how much exposure is beneficial and at what point does it become a problem…

So a balance…

I know I have enjoyed being behind the scenes in many marketing launches, documentaries and other projects…

But sometimes a true message needs to be delivered from us…

Our specific character needs to deliver the message…

So it becomes a calling…

A level of bravery…

To step up and let the greater plan take the wheel…

So the challenge becomes…

To let the fear be less important than the impact and package up your message into products and offers…

And take it out into the world…

Bonus points if you surround yourself with likeminded people who want to care for you and see you succeed…

Define your own version of authentic success…

RIP Liam… and thank you for the life lessons that you likely didn’t know you gave me…

PS…

I typed this while standing on the deck where he is in this photo, so maybe some of these messages are passed though from him…

PPS

We took this photo to show the girls when they grew up that they met them