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Having influence is NOT always a bed of roses!
image credit sxc.hu
Along with influence comes a certain unavoidable degree of visibility, where you start living in a kind of fishbowl and are held up to a level of keen observation, and even criticism, that you probably weren’t used to before.
I personally dislike publicity. Have always grown up shielding myself from the spotlight, trying to make a difference behind the scenes. It worked – small time.
Until suddenly, one day in 1999, I realized that the heroes I grew up on, the folks I learned to look up to and learn from, WERE NO LONGER VISIBLE. I’m sure they existed, just weren’t as widely talked about, or promoted, or publicized.
I wondered why.
Today we have unscrupulous politicians, thieving criminals, unethical business-people, immoral stars (movie, music et al) as the ULTRA VISIBLE role models our youth must look up to – because there’s no alternative.
That was the day I wrote a stinging letter to India’s largest weekly magazine, INDIA TODAY. With a circulation of over FIVE MILLION in different Indian languages.
To my shock, they mentioned it in the EDITORIAL – on the first page.
And did a DIFFERENT kind of cover story from their regular style – on people, Indians, folks our youth and country must look up to. Sports superstars and social workers, novelists and entrepreneurs, people worth emulating and dreaming of becoming.
And that was the day I decided it would be IRRESPONSIBLE to let my personal feelings about publicity and visibility get in the way.
I would overcome my natural reticence and shyness, work on living with it, to draw attention to the work I do, the causes I support, the people I admire, the needs of sick children in India and the world.
Do I enjoy it? Absolutely not.
I feel VERY strange when I receive adulatory emails from folks across the globe. When total strangers write to say they’ve been moved to doing things after seeing what I’ve achieved.
But then I sit back and think… what if this encourages THEM to go for their dreams.
That’s when I decide it’s probably worth the trouble. The discomfort.
Yes, influence carries with it some discomfort.
I have to get out of my comfort zone to get this effect. So that others as scared as I once was know there are people DOING this, and so they can get the courage, the belief, the role model to follow on the path to fulfilling their own destiny.
I am not comfortable being praised in public. Would rather hide under a
bushel of anonymity.
But some things are more important.
Being seen as a role model for younger, more energetic but less directed or guided people, is one of those.
It doesn’t make the decision easier or the situation more pleasant – but at least, there’s a purpose to be achieved by enduring the discomfort of influence.
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