Good morning Dinks. You may remember from our Dinks Reality series that I am a huge fan of reality TV. This includes TV shows such as Survivor and The Apprentice. However it also includes some TV shows that I am a little bit ashamed to admit that I watch such as The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
I am not sure why I love watching TV shows about celebrities and rich people, but I do. If you read gossip magazines and watch Entertainment Tonight why do we love keeping up with the extravagant lives of celebrities?
Is it because they have money?
If you have spent the better part of your life working hard and saving money maybe you love celebrities because they have money, or at least more money than we do. Maybe we are fascinated to see how the other half lives and we secretly – or not so secretly – wish that some day we will have that kind of money too.
Money can buy us all of the things that we want, but the question that we need to ask ourselves is why do we want them? Other than necessary living expenses such as food, clothing and other personal items we don’t really need much else to live. But yet for some reason we still want things, why is that?
Maybe it’s because we love a good success story.
Not all rich people and celebrities are spoiled debutants and housewives. Some of Hollywood’s elite are actually hard-working self-made millionaires. I personally love a good success story. I love reading about people who have come from nothing, didn’t take no for an answer, made their way to the top by achieving their dreams and made their fortunes while doing it.
Who is your favourite successful person?
Some people may say that their favourite success story is that of Donald Trump or Steve Jobs. I personally love the story of how Jay-Z and Russell Simmons created their fortunes. They created their empires by doing something they love…making music. Jay-Z and Russell Simmons didn’t make their millions from buying the right stock, backing large corporate loans or buying real estate. They started doing something they love and they turned it into a multi-million dollar fortune. If you don’t know who they are then I suggest you Google their story, these two gentlemen are definitely an inspiration for all of us hopefuls out there.
Maybe it’s because money equals power.
It is very possible that it’s not the money of celebrities and successful people that attract the attention of the public eye, maybe it’s the power that comes along with being successful. If you could choose to have only one quality what would it be – would you want to have money or power?
Money can buy you all of the things that you want and power will give you the option to make positive changes. Money doesn’t necessarily make us all superficial and sometimes we can let power get to our heads and consume our being.
If you could only have one, which would you choose?
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Kristina Tahnyak
Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.
I think out of those three I’d love to have the great success story. Money isn’t a be all end all for me, but having a great success story would result in me being the happiest (I would think). Also, having a great success story probably means that you have enough money to live comfortably.
I’d choose money. Being a small success story myself, I will say it was an awesome ride but then all of the haters pile up and make you feel like poop for succeeding. Money lets us live our life the way we choose. So I’d choose money over being well known anytime.
Yeah, some of us may not agree but we look at these celebrities highly because of their wealth and power. They are used by big advertising companies because they have influence over the people.