A Shaved Pig – updated 2018
Here in America people who pay attention to the popular culture tend to see a lot of desperate attempts at fame and stardom. These fame pursuers see the greased pig and think they will be the one who can hold on to it. They think they have the right idea or the right looks or music or art or invention or style. They are better than the other ones, they will succeed where the others failed.
They are most likely wrong. The reason is they are pursuing the pig of fame instead of the path of success. I don’t mean that in some cliché marketing way. I simply mean that if fame is the end goal, you aren’t on a path, you are on a hunt defined by your desperation and fame’s fickle route through the prickers and thickets, a route you have to follow mercilessly.
If you’re end goal is success (which may include fame as a by-product) you can make a plan, you can follow through on it, and you can gauge your success on that plan. Most importantly, you will have substance that will sustain you whether fame comes or not.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“Fame is like a shaved pig with a greased tail. It is only after it’s slipped through the hands of thousands, that some fellow, by mere chance, holds on to it.” – Davy Crockett, 1786-1836, U.S. Congressman, frontiersman.