Friends, Fans, and Celebrities

I’ve been intending to write or talk on this topic for quite a long time either on my blog or my channel, mostly for the reason that virtually EVERYONE who has something going on, either a business or their own unique hustle- faces the challenge of not having friends support their hustle. As disheartening as it may be to not have your friends, especially your close ones support your hustle. There are vast reasons and scenarios for this which I’m going to point out in this article.

Let’s look at a scenario (typically mine), where a blogger/YouTuber who’s basically upcoming and has little or no fan base at all but relies on the support from friends and family is disappointed at the effort put in by friends and family to support the ministry. It’s really painful, especially when the love comes from people you barely talk to and people you don’t know. Or more common scenarios, friends who proudly show massive support to celebrities that are unaware of their very existence, but pay no attention to what you do. There are of course, God-sent friends who support enormously and go as far as encouraging others to support, but there are also supposed friends who don’t even show interest in what you got going on regardless of the bond you share. Sad right? Well I pondered on what the reason could be. Most times hate and jealousy isn’t the case. True we have jealous friends, friends who want to see you doing good but not better than them. Those are reasons a lot of people decide to settle with and end up seeing those friends as haters.

But let’s think outside the box, would their efforts be sufficiently appreciated? We are all busy, would you appreciate their time taken to show love? It’s a norm that whenever a celebrity shows love, the appreciation you show is visibly different to how you appreciate your own friends. You could go as far as showing the entire world that a “celebrity” recognizes your work, but when it comes to your “friend”, you just give a simple “aww, thank you”? You value the effort of a celebrity (which in some cases might be done for publicity stunt), to that of your friend. 

We also have very regular normal reasons; either they are short on data to watch your online videos, they have little to money at all to patronize your business or they are currently preoccupied and understandably don’t have time to spare.

In some cases however, your friends and family may support you in other significant ways. Financially for example, my dad is not a “media” person and also a very busy person, no time to spare. Hence, he barely watches my videos nor read my blog post, not until I forcefully give him to watch or read. But his support is majorly financially, money for data expense which I use to upload and surf the net to better improve myself, money to purchase necessary equipments etc. Another example is moral support, little advice on how to run your business and grow,from friends and family is also very valuable and necessary. I have few of my friends who proofread my works sometimes before I post, also honest opinions and comments on your work as well as constructive criticism which plays a major role on your growth.  All these are ways support is obtained from friends and family significantly. 

Your support can also go a long way in building, developing, maintaining and sustaining your friendship with people whom you show love to and their work. Try your possible best to put in effort to the business progress and growth of people close to you. Expecting free service simply because they’re friends is not appropriate. I used to have a mindset of “no friendship in business”, but the least you should expect is a discount price and not “FREE” service or product unless of course they decide to willingly. 

The effort put in your business or whatever hustle you got going on by your friends should be appropriately appreciated, keep up with comments and try to reply ALL. You don’t want to play celebrity on your friends- Trust me you don’t, because it’s a fast track to loosing supportive friends.