The US Navy Fighter Weapons School in Fallon, Nevada, offers TOPGUN, the 13-week Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor Course (STFI), which trains the top percentile of US Navy pilots. Over 13 weeks, they face 12-hour days, over 3 months. Totaling over 1,000 hours, this is on top of the similar hours it takes just to be considered for the program. Comparable numbers of intense hours of training and drilling are required to become members of the US Special Forces, such as the US Navy SEALS or US Army Rangers.
A common rule of thumb is that in order to become an expert or master performer in a given field, it takes 10,000 hours of practice. Rather than providing any opinions on this rule or its validity, I’d only like to say that in order to become good – and especially, great – at pretty much anything, it likely takes a combination of talent and/or skill at it, time and/or effort in honing it, and real world experience immersed in it, learning from both the successes and inevitable failures along the way to mastery.
Despite all of the efforts expended by his detractors to stymie his own, including imprisonment by the authorities on sexual exploitation charges and banishment from prominent social media platforms, “Top G” Andrew Tate, has grifted himself a massive following upon the premise that he is “gangster” in not just one facet of life, but at everything worthwhile in life as an alpha-male, hence the “Top” in “Top G”.
I have to give him credit; he is clearly a force, considering he’s a former professional kickboxer (which is gangster enough, as far as I’m concerned) and seems to keep himself in fighting shape. He seemingly remains everywhere thanks to his fanbase, despite his legal challenges and being removed from the aforementioned social media platforms. He’s charismatic, articulate, a great debater, comes off really well in interviews – when he wants to – and boasts of still raking in millions through his many (ahem) business dealings, profiting again, from his fanbase resulting in a supposed net worth of ~$12M.
Like exiled YouTuber Colleen Ballinger, aka Miranda Sings, the fictitious, self-proclaimed “five-threat” singer/rapper, actor, dancer, model and magician accused of “sexual inappropriateness” – and also apparently worth ~$12M – time will tell if controversy can be overcome and a comeback completed.
Another “Top G”, Gary Vaynerchuk, is not just allegedly impressive. He’s a real life version of the above noted five-threat, being a quintuple-threat himself – as an also self-proclaimed “purebred entrepreneur” and investor, author, vlogger, and motivational speaker. He’s a master at producing highly engaging, inspirational, bite-sized, profanity-laced content on all social media platforms that sooner or later, in many cases, grow his businesses as the vague-but-entertaining advice leads his flock of “wantrepreneurs” to his main coop; VaynerMedia Agency, the digital marketing firm he and his brother co-founded.
Brilliantly, he’s making money peddling the concept of becoming successful by promoting and featuring his own businesses’ success as examples of what potential clients might expect. His grift’s easily facilitated via the legitimate businesses he owns. They’re able to be wildly successful, not due to the exemplary services they provide – which they may – but because they’re associated with his brand.
Further to this, he and his brand were able to become famous, as many people and their brands have; by being famous, infamous or notorious for something, or by being in the right place (working at his father’s successful liquor store business), under the right circumstances (being handed control of the business), at the right time (the mass migration to online sales and the creation of YouTube).
To his credit, he saw value in promoting the business via hosting a show on YouTube, which, fortunately for him, resonated with those that consumed wine in particular and goods/services in general. As a result of this unique set of timing and circumstances, a somewhat unique – and very lucky – star is born!
Disclaimer: The information contained herein should not be construed or considered professional advice. Nonetheless, thanks for reading! If it resonates, there’s “plenty more where that came from” on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube ‘n’ Twitter.