Nick Ahad: Hard work is the key to true success – not fame for the sake of it

I believe the reason the universe is expanding, as Professor Hawking tells us it is, is in order to accommodate my contempt for the TV show X Factor.

It is both a symptom and a cause of the worst modern illness. I write, of course, of fama cupiditas, to give it the Latin name I just made up. Desire of fame.

People who want to be famous – as an end in itself – are poisoning our society. You see them on this X Factor show. They claim that singing is all they have ever wanted to do, but look in their eyes and what they actually mean is that they want something handed to them on a plate without a day of actual work or effort.

The singing appears incidental – they just want to be famous.

This week I had the privilege of spending time with three people who have become famous, because of what they have achieved. The fame was incidental. What came first was the work they put into their craft.

The first person I met who has achieved the modern day elixir is Alice Nutter. She gained fame the first time around with pop band Chumbawamba, but latterly fame has accompanied her work as a writer.

After quitting the band, she threw herself into learning about the craft of writing. Success with Chumbawamba gave her the financial freedom to give herself two years to try succeed as a writer. She succeeded. This week she revealed to me her secret – she worked really, really hard, day in, day out, from the moment she decided upon the new career she wanted to pursue.

Tom Wells was the second person I came across who displayed an attitude best characterized as the opposite of an X Factor contestant.

After watching his beautiful new play (full review page 16) I heard him speak at a post-show discussion where he revealed how the play got so good. He worked on it. Really hard. He kept rewriting until it was the best he could get it. It is, I believe, far superior to his play The Kitchen Sink which won him great recognition and awards. That it is, is a result of the work he put into it.

The final person, Philip Franks, best known still as Charley in The Darling Buds of May, possibly put it best.

“People want to be famous. Not famous for doing something good, or achieving anything, just famous for being famous.”

He was incredulous at the notion.

I have good news for him. Were he sitting in my seat, from which I had seen the hard work and effort he, Nutter and Wells had put into their craft, he’d feel more positive. Some still want to practice their craft and not pursue only fame.