Peter Kay is crap. He isn’t in the least bit funny. He’s rubbish. He’s never said anything that anyone would laugh at. He’s over-rated and one of the laziest people in show business.
I’m grateful to the contributors to just one internet forum for revealing this information to me, and it was indeed a revelation. You see, I had allowed myself to be totally misled by the fact that his last tour was the largest and most lucrative in show business history. His earnings in 2011 were reported to be £20.34 million – primarily coming from his share of over a million tour tickets and the sale of a million DVD’s. How foolish can you be – thinking someone must be doing something right, just because of that?
To put it into perspective, Peter Kay’s earnings in 2011 were almost exactly the same as those reported for David and Victoria Beckham. And how they achieved that is something of a miracle as well. You see, he’s thick as two short planks, can’t play football to save his life and has a squeaky voice. She can’t sing, looks terrible and is always miserable. Totally useless, the pair of them – according to some newspapers and internet forums.
Crazy isn’t it…How can people as incompetent and worthless as this rake in almost £2 Million a month? The answer, of course, is they can’t. The money doesn’t lie.
Peter Kay and The Beckham’s are just two examples of the dozens of well known personalities who are regularly on the receiving end of vitriolic criticism of their abilities and talents when the money tells a totally different story. They have been financially successful on an extra-ordinary scale, and that’s because somewhere or somehow they have provided value that people were prepared to pay for. The market doesn’t give without getting something of value in return.
The £20 Million that Peter Kay earned in 2011 had to come from somewhere, and that place was the pockets of ordinary people – people who attended his sell-out shows and bought his DVD’s. The full amount these people spent was way in excess of the £20 Million that ended up in Kay’s pocket by the way – probably closer to £90 Million altogether. The £20 Million was just Kay’s share. They didn’t give that money up lightly. All those people carefully weighed up what was on offer and decided that on balance, they would rather have that than the cash they were prepared to exchange for it. If they’d valued their cash more than what Peter Kay had to offer, nothing would have happened. Money wouldn’t have changed hands.
Can you see how ridiculous it is to say that Peter Kay isn’t funny – that he’s over-rated or ‘rubbish’? The money never lies. It always provides a forensically accurate picture of the value the world places on anything and everything. The amount of money you and I earn now is a perfect reflection of the value the world places on us. We might not agree with the valuation, but it is accurate nonetheless. So why the disparity between what people say, and the truth displayed by the money?
Well aside from the apparently inherent tendency of people in the UK to talk down anything and anyone who achieves success, it all comes back to markets. If you do not happen to be in the natural target market for the business, product or personality in question, then it’s easy to mistake your own lack of enthusiasm for a more general lack of value. In Peter Kay’s case, I would say that the less closely you fit the profile of northern, working class and over 35, the more likely you are to be one of those people hitting the forums with ‘unfunny’ and ‘rubbish’ comments.
No matter what the entity you’re talking about….a person, a personality, an actor, a singer, a sports person, a TV show, a film, a book, a magazine, a business, a company, a product, a brand…if that entity achieves financial success, the extraordinary value has to be somewhere. Even if you don’t care for the entity personally, you’re missing a massive learning opportunity by simply dismissing it as ‘crap’.
The value could be in the performance, the end product, the results, the personality the presentation or most crucially, the appeal to a particular market., but if the money is there, then so is the value. The money only ever goes to where extraordinary value is to be found. Working out where the value is can pay huge dividends and is sometimes more interesting to investigate in cases where the value/talent/quality isn’t immediately obvious. The money saw something. So what was it?
The next time you find yourself bemused by the big financial success being achieved by something or someone, don’t make the mistake of arrogantly concluding that the world has gone mad. Instead, give some thought to what the money has seen. There will be something, and it could be something you could emulate and cash in on.
Remember, the money doesn’t lie. It points the way to an unchallengable truth which anyone can profit from.
I agree John, the old adage has never been more sound in that, you can please some people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. But in an age when we have always had a good sense of freedom of speech, current social media allows those with an axe or something else to grind place vitriolic comments on sites that have little relevance to whom they are written about. Take the comments written about Tom Daley the Olympic Brinze medal winner!
I believe there needs to be some controls placed on the posting of unfounded or irrelevant information that could cause personal offence. Like the comments after the London riots by some halfwit that saw him in court. The media sites need to take some responsibility and whilst I believe in freedom of speech, unsuitable comments need to be monitored and removed if offensive, with the writer warned of their conduct. You will never stop the moaners and jealous types but maybe the returns gained by those you talk about are through their ability to give what people want.