I may never get good at this "public life" thing because I'm too honest. I've gotten better about telling The Truth but not The Whole Truth and leaving out private details but I'm pretty sure a lot of people with a public life are essentially rampant liars, if not explicitly, then at least implicitly.
And I don't really blame them in cases where they are literally talking to the press or something like that. I've never believed that if you are famous you owe the world details about your private life and the Paparazzi is really bad about actively trying to dig up such things. So I think at a certain level of fame, that's probably inevitable, like it or not.
But being naive and overly honest, I wasted a lot of time talking to men I thought had business acumen they didn't have because they were better at playing the game than I was and they were good at glossing over their lack of business acumen and SOUNDING like "real businessmen" (TM). And they were willing to talk to little ole ME and I asked questions hoping to get a Clue because I was desperate for money and et cetera.
I eventually realized one man had most likely inherited his wealth and didn't actually know anything about making money as a business person, so talking to him was a waste of time, and he had strung me along with answering my questions thereby implicitly agreeing with my assumption he knew something I didn't.
Actual reality: I gave him feedback on his website and HIS nominal "business" -- really a hobby of sorts -- did better after that AND he never kicked a few bucks my way, never told anyone else "She's good. HIRE HER." and didn't tell me how much it helped him until much, much later.
The most charitable read of this is that he was incapable of relating to my survival issues and how much I NEEDED to improve my income. But I was homeless at the time and I'm pretty sure he was basically stringing me along as an excuse to talk to a woman, never mind that he was married, so I ultimately concluded that I didn't care if there were extenuating circumstances, no, there was nothing "understandable" about his awful behavior towards me.
Pro tip: If you are a woman -- or just some clueless ninny with no business experience HOPING to start a business -- people who hang out with business people and SOUND like business people aren't always real business people. Some of them just talk a good game and are good at the PR thing -- the public relations thing, in the most literal sense.
And I don't know what to tell you to try to sort this out because I was convinced we were FRIENDS, so I felt confident he wouldn't do anything deceptive like that to ME. And also realized he probably had a crush on me and was likely imagining a future with me -- just as soon as his wife dropped dead for some reason because divorce was not in the cards.
No, not because he was the "Til death do us part" type for some reason. Not because he was all Semper Fi.
But probably because he INHERITED his wealth and an ugly divorce splitting the estate would leave him permanently poorer with no means at all to recover from it. So he's not going to leave her.
The only silver lining: I was so sick I probably would have fucked it all up anyway even if I had actually been getting GOOD and RELIABLE feedback and this was true long enough for me to eventually figure a few things out about him and etc. with me still able to say "No real harm done, all things considered."
I still was furious about it and wanted nothing more to do with him. I still feel that way.
And I don't really blame them in cases where they are literally talking to the press or something like that. I've never believed that if you are famous you owe the world details about your private life and the Paparazzi is really bad about actively trying to dig up such things. So I think at a certain level of fame, that's probably inevitable, like it or not.
But being naive and overly honest, I wasted a lot of time talking to men I thought had business acumen they didn't have because they were better at playing the game than I was and they were good at glossing over their lack of business acumen and SOUNDING like "real businessmen" (TM). And they were willing to talk to little ole ME and I asked questions hoping to get a Clue because I was desperate for money and et cetera.
I eventually realized one man had most likely inherited his wealth and didn't actually know anything about making money as a business person, so talking to him was a waste of time, and he had strung me along with answering my questions thereby implicitly agreeing with my assumption he knew something I didn't.
Actual reality: I gave him feedback on his website and HIS nominal "business" -- really a hobby of sorts -- did better after that AND he never kicked a few bucks my way, never told anyone else "She's good. HIRE HER." and didn't tell me how much it helped him until much, much later.
The most charitable read of this is that he was incapable of relating to my survival issues and how much I NEEDED to improve my income. But I was homeless at the time and I'm pretty sure he was basically stringing me along as an excuse to talk to a woman, never mind that he was married, so I ultimately concluded that I didn't care if there were extenuating circumstances, no, there was nothing "understandable" about his awful behavior towards me.
Pro tip: If you are a woman -- or just some clueless ninny with no business experience HOPING to start a business -- people who hang out with business people and SOUND like business people aren't always real business people. Some of them just talk a good game and are good at the PR thing -- the public relations thing, in the most literal sense.
And I don't know what to tell you to try to sort this out because I was convinced we were FRIENDS, so I felt confident he wouldn't do anything deceptive like that to ME. And also realized he probably had a crush on me and was likely imagining a future with me -- just as soon as his wife dropped dead for some reason because divorce was not in the cards.
No, not because he was the "Til death do us part" type for some reason. Not because he was all Semper Fi.
But probably because he INHERITED his wealth and an ugly divorce splitting the estate would leave him permanently poorer with no means at all to recover from it. So he's not going to leave her.
The only silver lining: I was so sick I probably would have fucked it all up anyway even if I had actually been getting GOOD and RELIABLE feedback and this was true long enough for me to eventually figure a few things out about him and etc. with me still able to say "No real harm done, all things considered."
I still was furious about it and wanted nothing more to do with him. I still feel that way.