Keep the interest in people

‘Don’t meet your heroes” is a piece of conventional wisdom. “They will surely disappoint you”.

I have had the good fortune to meet a couple of my personal heroes and I must disagree. They were generally pleasant enough. They treated me with respect and politeness. However, there is a proviso.

I met these people as a member of the media. As such, I was of use to these people as a marketing and branding opportunity. Our relationship was something close to a partnership.

I have also had occasion to bump into those same famous people in other circumstances, away from my work. Here, I have had more mixed results.

Sometimes the person will literally not recognise you. At others, share a perfunctory greeting.

However, there is the rare breed of famous person who is interested in everyday people.

I once encountered this approach with a personal hero of mine named Chuck D, leader of the rap group, Public Enemy.

To this day, I have no idea how PE found themselves in Johannesburg but there they were and I was blessed enough to interview Mista Chuck, as he is known. We had an hour-long conversation, during which he seemed sincerely keen to learn more about the situation in our country.

I was thrilled when he dropped some of the simple buzzwords I’d shared with him at that evening’s concert at the Alexander Theatre. But I guess that is his stock in trade – telling stories – and he gets those stories by being engaged with other people.

Famous people may be different, but they are us. And they are prone to a strange loneliness, to being universally admired, but strangely alienated and depressed.

Alone amongst the millions. When we find ourselves more interesting than others, then we start to lose some of that fuel that powers us. The reciprocal human connection, which is love.

I’ve been trying to remember this lately, trying not to be too much with myself. To appreciate the beauty and magic of other people. Because when we appreciate others, we retain our enthusiasm for life.