Chrissy Teagan, a former model who married John Legend, was featured on a podcast I heard yesterday. I have never been a fan of hers. Like many once famous celebrities, she seems to be clinging to whatever fame she can maintain.
The problem is, she’s no longer a hot supermodel. She and Legend are no longer the hot “It” couple that graces all the magazine covers and websites.
They are rich and successful. They have a bunch of kids. They live a luxurious life.
But, nobody really gives a sh!t about Chrissy Teigan again. (Or maybe it’s just me – who never gave a shit).
Her 15 minutes of fame have passed her by.
I think she has launched a podcast to capitalize on her dwindling celebrity status. She’s not the first person to do this and won’t be the last.
Who knows – maybe her podcast will be a big hit.
But even if it is and it catapults her to the upper echelons of podcasts, that success will be fleeting. In a short time, even if her podcast tops the charts, she’ll become irrelevant again.
We all do.
Fame, I suspect, only makes the fall into irrelevance feel steeper and more dramatic.
I first experienced being irrelevant when I went to college. I went from being the “smartest kid at my school” to being a nobody at my college.
I experienced it again in my early 30s when I left a startup where I had been a “key money player” for 4 years and realized that nobody missed me (or if they did, they never told me).
Those were two great lessons.
Now I don’t fear becoming irrelevant. Or invisible. Or forgotten.
It happens to everyone.
What matters to me is being relevant to those I love – which for me today are my dogs and a few close friends. I like being visible to my broader circle of “loose” friends too. It’s nice to be seen and missed.
As for my own time in the dimmest of spotlights, that passed me by long ago.