James Momo Talks About Jealousy In The Entertainment Industry

Top Liberian Blogger and founder of Musicliberia.com (One Of the biggest Entertainment websites in Liberia), James Momo in a recent Facebook post has talked about jealousy in the music industry and blogging world. It may sound like his article is mainly focused on the Liberian Entertainment Industry but actually, it is  an article that everyone who is a participator in the world of blogging and Music should read.

Are Jealousy & Sour Grapes Killing your Career

Jealousy can kill a career and worse still your creative spirit. Competitiveness is good, but Competitiveness can quickly turn to jealousy if you don't feel like your music or blog is receiving the attention and accolades it deserves. Jealousy is bad for the soul; it's wasted energy that could've used to create something new in this world.

The good old days were never that good expect for very few Musician and Blogger, and now that the problem of distribution has been more or less solved with the internet, any musician or blogger can reach a global audience, whatever the size, and even if things aren't perfect at the moment the is massive potential heading into the future for musicians and bloggers generally to take control of their own careers and reap the rewards of their work instead of giving 80% out for free.

The Liberian Entertainment Industry have suffered a lot due to too much envious minded personality within the industry. If I may say, the entire 2018 wasn't that good for our industry, but few musicians and bloggers had to celebrate to it. CIC, DenG, Soulfresh, Bucky Raw, Stunna, Nuchie Meek, Kizzy W, Eric Geso, Jaredo, and others, with few other artists based in the United State. They all had to enjoy the best out of it due to the tireless efforts in seeing them achieve that goal.

Envy is when someone becomes totally possessed by the need and greed and cannot see that they can achieve something, they just want it.
Success doesn't come from imitation, success comes from providing something that isn't already out there.

Presently in our industry, we have seen some blogger attacks their fellow bloggers and musician showing some form of hate to their fellow musicians. Let address this:

(Blogger Against Blogger)
At first you may feel successful by imitating others, you're gaining followers on Facebook, your blog have been the most popular, but success is fleeting when you bring nothing new to your blog, and morale don't pay rent. Weather it's your style, your writing, your personality or something else, it's necessary to have something fresh to be a successful blogger.

The blog with fewer than 10k followers may be bringing in five times the money of the blogger with 50k. The blogger with 15k followers may get the big box of swag but the blogger with 7k followers might be the one who got the services of paid blog posts.

Some may even say "That blogger just puts on clothes and move around the street and takes photos and he/she act like a millionaire. It's so Unfair!
I hate to break it to you, but that blogger does a hell of a lot more than just moving around the street. There's so much behind the scenes that's taking place for he/she to be successful." One of the blogger I mostly admire is Lydia Freeman, CEO of Giselle Magazine.

Blogging is like that, except most of it takes place in the glow of a laptop screen. Prancing for the camera may be 70% of the work when you're a new blogger. But when you turn it into a business and begin to get press, traffic, and opportunities, those photoshoot maybe 20% of your work. Contracts, emails, conference call, networking, events, meeting, taxes, writing, editing, social media, marketing and promotion, business development, staff training and management and much more. Just like running any other business, most of the hard work is behind the scenes and a successful business keep it all behind the curtains, so it looks effortless and fun.

Blogging isn't easy. But if it's what you really want to do, you need to work on you before you work on networking.

(Musician Against Musician)

It can be difficult not to dwell on feelings of jealousy over another artist's success, but it won't do anything to further your career. If you catch yourself doing it, rather than stopping, try delving into your feelings and ask yourself why you feel the way you do.

Jealousy over another artists success won't help your career, but being honest about your feelings might help you define your goals and understand yourself a bit better. It also important to note that you may be feeling jealous for a good reason. Weather your fellow artists song is just plain better or that another is simply luckier than yours, holding onto jealousy is a bad idea because it won't help you reach your goals. Only doing hard work of music can do that.

The lie goes sometimes like this: when someone else succeeds, it means I have failed.

When you see other artists enjoying their fame, money, accolades, or other types of success, we interpret it as a reflection on ourselves. Why do they get to enjoy success? Am I not worthy of the same success? Why do they get to have that I don't have?

But it's a myth. We know it isn't true on an intellectual level, but our creative egos are fragile. We emotionally interpret their success as a judgement against our own lack of success.

Don't worry about another person's strengths and success. They are traveling on their own creative journey. Don't spend your life trying to sing someone else tune. Instead focus on your own unique journey and how you can bring more of your art into the world. Creativity is like water, and you cannot draw water from an empty well.

Ouit your complaining. It's not the world's fault that you wanted to be an artists or a blogger. It's not the world's job to enjoy the fame you make, and it's certainly not the world's obligation to pay for your dreams. Stop whining a get back to work, it might sound harsh but it's a good reminder that the most important thing is to keep working. That is your job as artists and bloggers. You do it because you love it, because you need to do it. Anytime you spend complaining about how you are not recognized as you should be is time you could be spending creating.

I'd love to hear your stories about dealing with musical competitiveness, envy, or jealousy. Feel free to comment below.