Success without Smugness

As an active member of several online communities dedicated to composition and music production, I often participate in interesting, sometimes even controversial discussions. One of these had recently appeared on the VI-Control.net forum under the title: “How many successful people in the music industry are elitists and snobs at the same time?”. Or something like that. Anyway, the topic starter claimed to have never encountered such people and that the traits such as arrogance, elitism, smugness, self-righteousness, and snobbism are typically found in persons who are not successful. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but I find such a claim to be completely unrealistic and illogical. I can’t say that I have met a lot of “famous and successful” people thus far, but plenty enough to be convinced otherwise. Although I try not to give in to stereotypes, I’ll gladly make an exception in this case. After all, who is completely immune to the “fame and glory” and everything that comes along with it?

Observing the people in music and art, I’m noticing three imaginary categories according to their level of “success” and chances for them to be full of themselves for that very reason. You’re noticing that I often put the word “success” under parentheses - because I consider this to be a relative term that differs from one case to another. But most people automatically link success with being “rich and famous”. So, here we go:

“Artists”

In this group, I would place all of those who had dedicated their entire being and lives to art and music but were never fortunate enough to be adequately appreciated and respected by the community. Sadly, history is full of misunderstood artists whose greatness had been finally recognized well after the end of their natural lives. I think that such persons are the most humble and kind ones. Ironically, this very nature may well be one of the reasons for their “lack of success” in a society that often favors the exact opposite: arrogant, uncompromising, and smug ones.

“Professionals”

Here, I would put the people who are exceptionally good at doing what they do, but unlike those in the previous category, have the fortune of being recognized and appreciated by the community. As a consequence, they may be “rich and famous” as well. However, some of them stay close to the earth, keeping the following attitude: “I’m just doing what I do and I’m trying to do it well”. But there are always many exceptions to the rule. Here you can undoubtedly find a great number of shameless elitists, which comes from their success, but also from being a member of certain, often closed circles.

“Stars”

Finally, we have the “stars” - people who are not only “rich and famous” and celebrated ones, but also omnipresent in public life and the media. I firmly believe that this group is the most crowded one with elitists and snobs who are trying to be or at least look galaxies away from the mere mortals. Once again, one should always try to rise above these kinds of stereotypes, but I firmly believe that what I wrote above is quite true.