real talk

“Do not let yourself be surrounded by people who will peck you to death like a duck. If you allow yourself to be around people who show you who they are and you refuse to believe it, they will each time they enter into your space, take a little piece of your soul.” —- Maya Angelou

I am always curious about how very public people handle the backlash of success, especially since they experience it on a grander scale and with many more people following their every move. This past week in a random way I came across the blog of an actor. As I worked today, I read through his blog and I found a post that really shook me. It was written the day after he heard he was nominated for a golden globe. He said:

The true price of success is loss.
One can lose everything,
from the hunger that drove them in the first place
to the privacy of the man in the mirror.
Strength tends to be the only antidote to loss;
we use it to deal with the emptiness that we feel
at the after party of “success.”
I’d rather die a young man than let “blog bullies” kill my strength,
so strike me down before I let dumbed down versions of dumb rumours dull my senses.
Although I am unbelievably proud of my achievements as an artist,
it cannot and will not overcome my pride and responsibilities as a man.
Supporters are smarter than haters,
and haters are smarter than what they support.

I could feel the sadness and loneliness in his words. I sometimes fear being alone - isolated in what is supposed to be joy. I don’t even know what else to say. I don’t know if that makes sense. It’s a real part of the journey. Yet rather than let the negativity and doubt of others stop me from moving forward, I will keep working. As they are talking I hope it will simply become background noise as I continue working.