By: Trippe Fried
Kim Kardashian made headlines recently by covering herself in baby oil and posing nude. The photos included one prominently displaying her surgically enhanced ass and another of the full frontal variety. As pictured, Kardashian's skin has an almost palpable sheen, as though she spent a week before the shoot marinating in a bathtub filled with cheap Italian salad dressing. She may have failed in her stated intent to break the internet but there is no quantifying the damage Kardashian has done to the digestive systems of the tens of thousands of internet users who couldn't help but stumble across these photos.
While there are many adjectives available to describe this publicity stunt - deranged and pathetic spring to mind - major media outlets deemed it newsworthy. Kardashian garnered front page headlines in the New York Daily News and the "story" was still available on both CNN and FoxNews's respective home pages days after it broke. She arguably had more coverage for her photo shoot than Peter Kassig got for his video - Kassig is the latest American to be decapitated by ISIS - and Kardashian was on even par with Bono after a door on the U2 lead singer's plane blew off in flight.
A review of Kardashian's resume reveals a blank sheet of paper. She is the penultimate reality show star. Kardashian has written nothing, created nothing, contributed nothing, offered nothing, and done nothing. Yet she is still deemed sufficiently interesting by enough people that she makes both headlines and money. Her existence, notoriety, and wealth make no sense to those of us toiling away - trying to create, build, improve, reconfigure, or add to anything. How could someone so useless garner so much attention and reward?
Entrepreneurs know (and learn quickly) that life is not a meritocracy. Great ideas and execution guaranty nothing. If notoriety is your goal, it is better to be in the right place at the right time than it is to be smart, or hard working, or both. However, if you recognize background noise for what it is and focus on searching for a new or better way to do something, you'll find satisfaction in having something far better to offer than a photo of your fake, oil-engulfed ass.