New York city is a concrete jungle that will inspire you to achieve new heights in life, at least that is how this song says it best. The reality though is that you can make it anywhere you just need passion, creativity, and know-how. The only reason why New York city is the example here is because it is such a hard city to survive in. The cost of living there is so high that if you are not making at least $140k a year then you are struggling, as studies have shown.
The reality thought is that millions of people come to NYC with nothing in their pocket but walk away with more money then they imagined. If anyone remembers how Madonna made it, she was just a girl who was headed for New York and once there asked a Taxi cab to drop her off in Time Square with $35 in her pockets and look where she is at today, which there was a movie made about her and that journey. If I was to tell you all the stories of immigrants who came to America, seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time, knowing that this was the land where dreams came true
this article would never end. It’s hard to imagine coming to any new place with barely any money and striking it rich like so many have already done.
The truth is that many people can do it. They just need to have the passion to want to do it. That is what separates the followers from the leaders. Every student knows that if they work hard they can achieve whatever they want, the reality though is that when things get tough many just drop out. They find themselves a job that makes ends meet and figure that is good enough for them, but the truth is they are always wanting more but they know it will never come. This is why so many people love playing the lottery because it gives them hope that someday their ship will come in and all will be fixed. This article is about one guy who didn’t wait for his ship to come in but instead went out and created his own fleet of ships.
What is Passion?
Passion is that one thing inside of you that pushes you to want and do more. It drives you every morning to get out of bed early and work on what makes you happy. It motivates you when someone tells you no for the fiftieth time but you keep pushing on anyway. Everyone has passion at a young age because you have nothing to worry about except school, friends, and having fun so there are no limits to what you can achieve. This is why parents, the good ones at least, push their kids to work hard and do what they want in life. The reality though is when you keep getting those bad grades on your tests and you have no idea why. The students who start to lose passion at a young age are the ones that figure they can not achieve anything no matter how hard they work. This is where the flaws of our education systems shine bright. The kids who need the most help never receive it unless they go out and ask for it. Their level of motivation to learn and their passion to want more drops every school year, not because they are not trying, but because they didn’t know what was available to them.
Passion is about finding your options in life that everyone is given. Many people don’t realize all the things out there that you can use for free to get you what you want in life, you just have to have the know-how to do it. That is how this one man came to New York with no place to live, no job, and just a phone in his pocket turned himself into a star because he knew what was available to him. That is when he started to turn things around, all within a short period of time.
The beginnings of a Social Media Star
Jerome Jarre is by no means your everyday person in life and at the same time he is. He wasn’t always outgoing, as his mom Agnès Jarre, said about her son growing up. This was someone who was constantly bullied, very shy, and mostly kept to himself. He grew up in Albertville, which was a small little place in France, hence why he knows french. His English was not great so he had another challenge to deal with when he arrived in the states but was always working on it where he traveled. He had trouble communicating with people but with a city like NYC it is very easy to find the little enclave of French residents and still make his way but he knew he needed to keep to the whole city not just one part of it.
Jerome did go to college but his passion and drive taught him that he needed to get out so he dropped out when he was 19 and traveled. He went to China and Canada starting many companies along the way. The one thing he taught himself well was how to travel for cheap, a skill that is very important to learn because he has been able to see so many places now, long before his success. His passion and drive also led him to create many startup companies that have failed. But what is the best teacher in life, besides this person and life itself? Failure, and those who learn from their failures are destined not to repeat them. Robert F. Kennedy put it best, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” There are too many people I have met in life who use excuses to get out of doing anything that might lead to success. I’ve always wondered why because if you always deprive yourself of any opportunity then what exactly are you trying to achieve in life?
Jerome did not have it easy when he started in New York City, he slept on anything he could find, office spaces, open areas, and probably even benches. Yes, he was homeless when he started in New York so he had to make do with whatever he could find. He knew coffee shops and any place with an outlet was important so he knew to keep those places in mind. In the meantime he kept up with his social media stuff, texting family and friends, posting updates online and just going about his day. It wasn’t until a little app called VIne came out that he suddenly found his calling. The app debuted on jan 24, 2013 and he downloaded it right away and learned how to use it. The everyday people look at things as they are, dreamers look at things for what they could be and that is exactly what Jerome saw in the Vine App. He spent the rest of the day learning all the different things he could do with it and going out and just making these 6 second videos. His first couple of videos weren’t that great but he posted them anyway getting very little attention, which was something he figured would happen in the beginning. Either way he knew this little app would change his life.
Making People Laugh
Laughter is the best medicine for anything so I don’t know why doctor don’t prescribe it more, oh yea, it doesn’t make any money for the pharm companies but that’s for another story. Jerome knew the powerful influence laughter has in social media when he started recording videos that made people laugh. In one clip he posted, he asked “why is everybody afraid of love,” and that is when his whole life changed. He discovered the power of making people laugh online and from then on he challenged himself to go out everyday and make more videos and post ones that were funny. Soon he had thousands of people following him and then millions. He eventually was asked to appear on Ellen, which you can watch below.
So how did he do it? He challenged himself to make videos with random people. Many people are afraid of just saying hi to someone they don’t know so imagine the pressure on himself to get out of his comfort zone and just make a fool of himself in NYC? The reality though is that you see this kind of thing all the time in a place like NYC because everyone there is trying to become a star. The challenge to create something everyday is the same method for everything else that is great in life. Genius doesn’t happen naturally, nor does talent, only hard work and determination create those two aspects of one’s self.
They tell you that if you want to be a writer, write everyday.
If you want to be an athlete, workout and practice everyday.
If you want to make music, play something everyday.
If you want to make people laugh, practice writing jokes/performing something funny everyday.
If you want to be a photographer, take pictures everyday.
If you want to create an app, practice coding everyday.
If you want to get good at math, practice math everyday.
If you want to win a race, run everyday.
If you want to be the best at anything, practice it EVERYDAY!
Jerome made it a point to do something everyday until he got what he wanted and then posted it. Sometimes he had nothing to post and other times he had gold. He didn’t let his failures get in his way, he kept pushing himself to work harder. Along the way he met many people form the videos he made but he always made sure to introduce himself afterwards to the person and let them know what he was doing. Yes he had his fair share of people who didn’t think what he was doing was funny but many did and that is all that counts.
The old adage is still true and will always be true, “if you can get someone to laugh, you can sell them anything.” Laughter is very powerful and important to have in life. The reason why I wrote about the deaths of Robin Williams and Joan Rivers is because we need comedians in our lives. They show us the truth to ourselves in a way that we can laugh at ourselves. Jerome does this in a whole new way and that is why so many people love him for it. He shares his joy of life through all his social media accounts getting people to see the joy and wonder of going out and enjoying this amazing planet.
Success in the End
Jerome worked hard when most people would have thought of going back home where it is safe and they have a place to sleep. His English made it hard sometimes to get people to understand him so he made another effort that separates the doers from the dreamers. He would listen to the audiobook “Crush It!” by Gary Vaynerchuk to help improve his English speaking skills, the same way an English speaker would listen to Spanish books or watch movies. This taught him proper pronunciation and dialect and so on. He knew he had to keep working to improve himself and reading books like that are a great start to finding your passion in life. He did this everywhere he traveled.
Gary Vaynerchuk is someone that he would eventually go on to meet and partner with. They both created an advertising agency called GrapeStory, that focuses on Vine, Instagram, and SnapChat Stars, just like Niche does except they work with all social media platform stars. Jerome has such passion in his life that it didn’t take long for Mr. Vaynerchuk to see that this was someone that knew what he was doing. Remember he didn’t go to college and complete those courses that teach you about this stuff, he just went out and taught himself and based on the feedback he got he would go back and improve it. He is now considered a social media expert and professional and is paid a lot of money for it.
Jerome has been offered millions of dollars from many companies, one he turned down, but more have offered. Jerome has shown that hardwork, passion, and know-how is all it takes to make it in this world. You only need a college degree if you don’t know what you are doing and need direction with specific training, otherwise anyone can be anything they want, they just have to want it bad enough to make it all happen. Jerome now travels with other famous social media stars meeting all his fans, or as he likes to call them “friends,” and even though he knows that he is famous now, it still amazes him to see the amount of people who come out to see him. He has since gone one to accumulate the same mass following on his Instagram, YouTube, SnapChat accounts. SnapChat is a platform he enjoys more because it gives him more time to record a movie or story.
SO…have you always dreamed of being that awesome wildlife photographer? Take more trips to the zoo or backwoods and take pictures. Ever thought about writing that movie script? Take the weekend to sit down and just write. Many great movies have been written in a period of 48 hours, it just takes a lot of self-discipline and dedication. Jerome has taught us that you do not need a lot of money, you don’t even need a fancy house/apt, a job, and you don’t even need to speak English all that well to make it in America. You just have to know what is around you, the curiosity to learn it all, and the drive to make it all happen. If you can keep it up, anything is possible.
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