What do Mark Zuckerberg, Miley Cyrus and Carolina Gynning have in common?
Answer: They have been considered among the most powerful in their fields, without any real previous experience.
Mark Zuckerberg is considered one of the most powerful forces in the business world, the youngest ever ranked by Forbes. He founded facebook at age 20. Still a student, no experience of tycooning whatsoever, wham! he’s the go-to business guy.
Miley Cyrus was one of last year’s highest-paid authors. At age 16, she’s done a TV show and recorded a few hit songs, but has never written a single word, wham! million-dollar author.
Last year, Carolina Gynning was dubbed the most popular TV host in a survey of the Swedish network heads. If you’re not familiar with Ms. Gynning, I can inform that she is not a veteran TV host, the bulk of her TV experience comes from competing in reality soap Big Brother, where she gained massive attention by having more or less televised sex.
It made me think that the yestermillennium expression “get off on the wrong foot” will soon seem Martian. In the Expectations society, nobody cares what foot you got off on, what matters is your next step.
To all people contemplating your future careers – it doesn’t matter where you start, you can’t get off on the wrong foot. There are no bad choices (even having sex in a reality soap can propel you to TV host dominance), only next steps.
What does Nextopia mean?
Nextopia på svenska
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Illustrations for the Nextopia book blog appendix
Hoes does this work together with your post on David Letterman. In that case he actually got off on the wrong foot?
Martin,
You got me there, you’re too smart for me.
To be honest, I think Dave is safe by now. It’s been over a week, which is ages nowadays, I’m pretty sure it’s forgotten.What I think is interesting in Dave’s case is how the world of any works: it doesn’t take much, you just need to upset one person, anyone, and that can be the end of it. Obviously, the network and the media saw nothing to Dave’s joke, and his primary target group, those actually watching the Late Show, did not. But someone, it could be anyone, stumbled on it, did not like it, and passed it on to people who would otherwise not have noticed or cared, and within a week, wham! firedavidletterman.com.
So, obviously, it’s never been easier to make mistakes (which may even previously not have been considered mistakes).
But I do think that the world turns so fast that even a mistake like Dave’s is pretty much forgotten already.
What do you think?
emvehå,
MD
Hi, I have given this a lot of thought. Since in the new millennium on slip can get you fired and as I wrote Jesus would never make it if he actually came back. He would be crushed in the world of any after just one mistake or flaw. At the same time we don´t care of yesterday’s (which is the new today as what happens today is considered as old news) mistakes but of tomorrow’s (which also is the new today as we mentally process future expectations right away) success.
Just to get the facts regarding David, his mistake was not the joke but being confused of which daughter Paulin that attended the now famous basket ball game. It was the younger daughter which made the joke in appropriate. This mistake did cost him a lot of bad PR.
But is it contradicting that one mistake can cost you your career at the same time as we forget so fast? I don’t think so. As you put it, it´s never been easier to make mistakes (or actually – get caught) but you will be forgiven (or actually – forgotten). Perhaps we will see more people taking a “time out” and then a comeback. The results would be that the new millennium is more forgiving (forgetting) than the old in spite of the fact that everything you ever do is stored so anyone can access it.
Let’s see what happens to David and if you remember Michael Richards? Will they be forgiven?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3l-gRHjUNk&feature=fvw
Martin,
In his case, it would undoubtedly be a comeback!
I really like the trajectory towards timeouts and comebacks. In full extension, virtually anyone who’s been passive or out of the limelight for just a microsecond or to will have to think, and be received, in terms of a comeback.
Kramer’s a golden oldie, have to admit I’d completely forgotten about his standup falldown.
emvehå,
MD