How Rich Are Entertainers?

This might be one of the most informed reports both for young people venturing into entertainment and industry veterans. Less than 0.1% of the richest people in the world are from the entertainment industry - sports, music, talk show, movie and all combined. This in a way contradicts the hyper popularity they get through the media and the big sign up fees promoters offer to get them. 

Interestingly, some of the highest paid entertainers do not end up becoming the richest in networth. I guess Michael Jackson was one of such. Those who become wealthy normally start off early, plowing their earnings into worthwhile investments and keeping their eye on it with all carefulness and skill. Out of about 1011 known billionaires in the world, Oprah Winfrey is the only entertainer on the list. Her closest two, Steven Spielberg and Tiger Woods are worth $110m and $90m respectively. A close study of the reasons most entertainers are scarcely wealthy is because of the lack of financial intelligence in recognizing the difference between what is an investment into asset and investment into their showbiz trade. For instance, it was recently mentioned that a top ranking comedian in Nigeria purchased a house in a high profile area worth N100m. Working on the numbers may reveal more liability from the property than income. An asset is what brings money to you while a liability is what takes money from you. At the later years of Michael, his Neverland Ranch was probably his biggest liability as the authorities quickly took hold of it when it seemed obvious his debt profile hindered him from keeping up with its huge bills.

Another reason entertainers fail to build wealth during their hay days is because of the tendency to assume that their top form and rating will continue and attract high cash flow for a long time. Gone are those days when, for instance, that once upon a time the music scene was at a point or another colonized by Don Williams, Jim Reeves, Bob Marley, The Beattles, and a couple others for a long period of say 4 years and some. There are so many stars these days begging to shine and it is very difficult, if not impossible, to be on the top chart for as long as 12months. The seemingly omnipresence status of today's negative headline hungry media beaming searchlights on the social and private lives of these stars can wreck a robust career within just minutes. This can get their image, corporate endorsements, earnings and net worth tumbling like a crashing plane. Tiger Woods is one of the recent examples.

A third reason entertainers are broke in their old age, if attained, is that the average monthly personal expense of some stars many times are equivalent to annual earnings of 5 high profile corporate executives combined. I once heard of a a rap star who is a car freak with over 50 customized cars. Well, some argue that many of these excess properties are not personally purchased. That some are complimentary gifts from their promoters. True to some extent. However, the gifts tend to build up their psyche on how they are expected to live even when the freebies are no more coming. The desire to impress is no doubt a fundamental attribute in entertainment business. For this reason, most would pay any price to impress, even if they have to be in deep debt doing just that- riding big cars, living in big houses, wearing the latest blings, doing designers, flying first class and private jets, appearing in top functions with top paid body guards, to mention just a few.  True it's difficult to gain fans and patronage without impressing. But Some of the wealthiest stars have discovered where the need to impress ends and who should pay for it - the fans and their promoters. Keeping this in mind helps to remain focused and to know that the best ways to impress has, and will always remain, self improvement, strong character, discipline, hard work and consistency. A friend said of a top female artist that her dad advised her to always "go straight home after the show" and not to "hang around", which she claims is her number one secret to her career success and stable marriage. This brings us to the last point to be treated in this article...

The high divorce rate among entertainers account not just for depletion of wealth but some psychological trauma which ultimately affects their bottom line in image, performance and earnings. No matter how normal our modern age laws have made divorce to appear, a failed marriage still affects the subconscious mind that one has failed in life's most fundamental procreational relationship. The reason is that most people that ever get involved in marriage never ever thought of a chance of divorce while taking the vows. Many had boasted their union would be a model of Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet kind of love, only to face uncomfortable divorce suit not too long after saying "I do". Many entertainers marry and had to divorce a few times which splits their wealth each time and many times lead to certain addictions that bring them to zero level and sometimes suicide. 

It is good that young people hoping to make a future in entertainment for the sole aim of becoming wealthy get to read this and make further findings before deciding if this is the best route for them to tow. If one is not passionate about what he is doing besides the money, ending up broke is just as normal no matter what comes in in the short term. Many times, you can have a passion for the trade but not as the art, probably as the promoter. This is also very okay. Don King, for instance, has never thrown a punch at anyone I know, but if you can name the biggest boxers in history, you can be sure he got rich from their punches because he promoted them - most of them (boxers) went broke, fighting him with lawsuits and still fighting to eat at old age. In all endeavours, however, the need for financial intelligence cannot be overemphasized.

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The Power Of Persistence in What You Love

"There is no giant step that does it. It's a lot of little steps" Anonymous

A story is told of a man who loved soda so much that he went into business of producing and selling soda drinks and called his product Soda 3up. The business failed and a after a while he started another soda business again and this time changed his product name to 4up. The product penetrated the market and sold some but then, the business failed after sometime. But the man still loved soda so much, so he started again and this time called his product 5up. Again, due to market changes, the business failed just as the previous ones. He was motivated to still try again and then started a new firm and still sold soda calling it this time 6up. the business flourished for a while and then failed too. He simply gave up. Few years later, another person came with a firm selling soda and called its name 7up. It became a run away hit product and the rest, they say, is history.

Most successful goals are realized after about several attempts at achieving them. So there is always need for persistent pursuit. The reason why most people give up too soon is because they do not really love what they are doing. If your primary and only motive for getting involved in anything is the money, then you are not likely to make it through the storm. For instance, I have friends who were stock experts before the global financial melt down. They now rather sell or talk about anything else than shares. It seems to me they were only there because of the huge buying, selling and switching commissions that were rolling in at the boom. Some of my banker friends now tell me "banking is not fun again, if you have something better just let me know". During times of change, stars emerge especially because of their passion for the trade and the hope of survival - not necessarily the desire to make it big - though they usually end up making it to the top, after the storm. This is because they decided to try it just one more time in another way. Helen Keller once said that the worst thing to happen to a man is not the loss of his eyesight, but to have eyes and lack vision. Vision is what makes you see beyond what is happening now. You can see the light ahead of the dark tunnel so you persist knowing that the heat won't last too long. I heard of a boxer whose coach told him if he could just endure enough to  take Tyson's punches beyond the fifth round he'd win the fight, and he did.

Most worthwhile generational impacting dreams in history took at least 10years from start to fruition. The reason most people fail is not because they lack vision, but because they lack the staying power - PERSISTENCE. Many people are always on the same goal but only one gets the credit - the person who persists to the end. Thomas Edison did not originate the research on a electric bulb, he even only bought the patent to the original work and continued from where the originator left off. It took him another 10,000 experiments to arrive at the solution, and he did not just persist, but was willing to persist for as long as possible, according to Napoleon Hill's report. As a teenager Abraham Lincoln had a foresight and passion in what he wanted to achieve in spite of his academic deficiency, career confusion and several political attempts in futility. Today, he is celebrated as one of the most accomplished American presidents in history.

To regain momentum for your dreams through persistence take the following steps:

1. Ask yourself if you truly have passion for what you are presently doing - can you do it even when there is no money to show? Can you do it for free? How do you feel when people say anything negative about what you do or the business in general? How much time do you spend on it daily? Who are your role models/mentors doing the same thing and successful at it?
2. Decide if you need to continue in your present career or change and apply your energy in something else you are more passionate about.
3. Write a personal mission statement of what you want to achieve in short, medium and long terms spanning from 90days to 20 years
4. Plan, plan, re-plan and write down your plans with time lines allocated.
5. Take immediate action steps in daily routines and keep the vision in view when confronted with setbacks.
6. Learn your game and constantly improve on whatever it is you are doing. Get better by challenging yourself
7. When faced with difficult times, retreat, reinforce and attack from a different direction. This could mean changing so many things including your particular job, business or product as most people realize late that they were not really passionate about their duty.
8. Be careful about making major changes that can impact negatively on your loved ones. Do not suddenly jump off your job into business unless you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. People who are used to pay cheques think and live differently from business people. They both can be successfull depending on their vission.
9. .Persistence Of Vision is the key to realizing anything you dream of, so stay motivated to make the next move every single day