110721_oh0089-e1315437369231
Sometime advise is best given anonymously.  

So here is not so much advise, as an observation on life for people I care about.

If you choose to involve yourself in a reality show, realize that the objective of the developers of the show or shows is not to boost your career, nor to make you look good (which doesn't mean that their mission is to make you look bad either). Their mission is ratings, which then boost their sponsorship and advertising revenue, which makes them and the show (financially) successful.  

Their mission is also to keep their production costs low, which means they are not looking to book the next Tom Cruise (and my guess is that Tom Cruise or Denzel Washington also probably would not do it). They are looking for individuals who at one point were very commercially successful in the entertainment or sports business, but are not so much that these days.  Which also means, they (1) are willing to do what they otherwise might not in the past, and (2) are willing to recieve celebrity attention, without real celebrity pay or compensation.

The bottom line is that the producers and show developers feed on drama and conflict, not normalcy and a sense of fairplay.  Unfortunately, so do the audiences the show developers are appealing too.

And so, when you enter a reality show environment, realize that your chances of exiting with a career in tatters and a reputation ripped into pieces for years to come, is at least as probable as exiting with the career boost you were originally looking for.

"I don't offer advise, because wise men don't need it and fools don't listen."

 

John Hope Bryant is an entrepreneur, author, advisor, and one of the nation's most recognized empowerment leader.  He is the founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Companies, The Inc. Magazine/CEO READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass), the only African-American bestselling business author in America, and is chairman of the Subcommittee for the Under-Served and Community Empowerment for the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability, for President Barack Obama.  Mr. Bryant is the co-founder of the Gallup-HOPE Index, the only national research poll on youth financial dignity and youth economic energy in the U.S.

 

Pin It on Pinterest