In conversation with a client, I was told the ultimate turn off was that one makeup artist who said “I don’t recommend anyone else…”There is an aura of chaos and confusion in the world today. I may not be spewing fact, but it is my truth. There is this false understanding of competition. Competing doesn’t mean to tear down, bash, and damage the opponent. Bragging rights is good, and it may hurt some feelings but it will encourage everyone to be better, meet higher heights, challenge themselves to do more, and become great.
A good and friendly competition, like a sporting event, for example, has rules, has order, and structure. The word compete means “strive to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others,” according to the Oxford English dictionary.
I, like most of the world, am a big fan of football aka soccer. What I love most about the game is that at the end of the competition, after all that sweating, watching grown men (and women) shed tears of joy, celebrate victory, console the losers; the tradition of swapping T-Shirts at the end of the match to show camaraderie.
Obviously, also, no straight woman minds seeing a six-pack (or the brand of sports bra they’ll adorn at the gym), but it’s the sense of connection through adversity, despair, and victory. It’s that Fen Shui philosophy of yin and yang. Where there is good, there’s also bad, and as Lara Croft repeated in the movie Tomb Raider, “What’s pleasure without pain?”
Who died and made you the only makeup artist?
There are many other makeup artists out there, and if you’re the only one, you’re probably doing something wrong, you’re not inspiring anyone. If you don’t have imitators then you’re just not worth mimicking.
Gordon Gekko’s infamous words in the 1987 film Wall Street were: “The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for a lack of a better word, is good.”
It’s good to do more, want more, and aspire to be greatness, but just remember the yin and yang of life. Remember to stay grounded in your faith.
I’m all for boasting and bragging about my work, career, or profession. However, it’s only for motivational purposes, channelling my inner Kanye West, and love saying “I’m Guyana’s Best Makeup Artist.” But, I don’t actually go to bed believing that I’m the greatest. I am not God.
Compete with love, aspire to be better, but remember you’re still human, and need to inspire others to grow with you.
As the biblical quote says in Philippians 2:5–8: Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.
Whether you’re your own Makeup Artist, a professional one, or both, you owe it to yourself and others to develop and share your God given talent.