Lessons We Can Learn from The Kardashians

7 lessons we can learn from 

kardashians on life and success

?Who are the Kardashians

Well, the Kardashians are a family of eight with their own reality TV series in America,Keeping Up with the Kardashians (KUWTK), which features their personal and professional lives. The series premiered in 2007 and has since catapulted the individual family members to fame; today it’s in its seventh season and has been renewed through the ninth season. The success of KUWTK has led to multiple spin-offs, all of which have done well.

The Kardashians have essentially built an entire business empire around the ‘Kardashian’ name. The sisters, in particular, are media magnets, with Kim being the lead figure. They repeatedly hog the headlines of tabloid magazines, appear in fashion magazines, and endorse products. They have launched perfumes and written a book, all of which have sold well. They even have clothing lines with mega brands Sears, QVC, and Bebe (discontinued).




The most prominent members of the family are the three daughters, Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, and Khloe Kardashian Odom, and “mom” Kris Jenner.

All three sisters are among the top 10 highest paid reality TV stars in 2010, with estimated total earnings of $11 million that year. The family earned $65 million in 2010 — more than the amount Tom Cruise, Sandra Bullock and Angelina Jolie made, combined. [Source]

With their rapidly rising popularity in the past years, the Kardashians are arguably the most powerful family in Hollywood today. And it looks like they are going to stick around for a while.

For those of you who don’t know, most people feel that the Kardashians shot to fame due to Kim Kardashian’s sex tape scandal in 2007. Prior to that incident, they were not known to the world. Their rapid rise of popularity, independent of any specific skill or talent of the individual family members (except, perhaps, the management skills of “mom” Kris Jenner), has created a highly polarized audience who either loves them or hates them. Most people would put the Kardashians in the category of “famous for being famous”, along with names such as Paris Hilton.

1

Keep it real

I like how the Kardashians have shared their lives to others so openly. They could have kept their family and personal problems under wraps, but instead they made their lives open books to the world. I think it takes an open character to do so. This has enabled many around the world to learn from their struggles, and probably the reason why they have won over the hearts of so many Americans.

In business, connect with your customers with your heart. Gone are the days of corporate sheen. People want to connect with real lives and real people today.

Again in business, help your customers solve real-life problems. Get to know them as individuals, then help them to tackle their problems. That’s why reality TV series are so popular today; they depict real people with real issues.

In relationships, present your true, authentic self, not a glossed-over, fake personality. People want to know you as the real you, including your insecurities and vulnerabilities. Constantly projecting a front merely erects a barrier that makes it impossible for people to connect with the real you. Read: The Secret To Meaningful, Fulfilling Social Relationships and 8 Tips on Attracting Authentic Love Into Your Life

In life, stay true to yourself, even after you achieve great success. Keep it real. The successful people whom I truly respect are the ones who keep it real and remain down to earth. (For example, the people I 

interviewed in Successful Businesses Interview Series.)

2

Make your work an extension of your life

Some of you might think that it’s impossible to make your work an extension of your life, and that work has to be something that you have to deliberately work at. I actually don’t think so; I think it’s about identifying what you are passionate about in life, turning that into a living, and then making your career a natural result of living your life.

For example, I used to work at a day job in a MNC, slogging 12-hour days because of the intensity of the work. Four years ago, I decided it was time to quit my job and pursue my passion. Today, my “work” isn’t work; it’s just something I naturally do as part of my everyday life (growing, sharing my reflections on growth, helping others to grow, etc.).

3

Focus on your core

Be smart in how you approach your goals.

1. Focus on the core. By core, I refer to the thing that matters the most; the epicenter of it all. This advice applies to business, life, and goals. In business, . Read this helpful piece at Forbes on “The Secret of Sustained Success” (answer: focus on your core). In life, focus on the thing that drives you and gives you the most joy. With your goals, focus on your top priority goal first, before you foray into other goals. Read:  How to Get Maximum Results When You Have Too Many Ideas (Harnessing The Superstar Effect)

4

Turn adversities into assets

Not only that, it can’t be a nice feeling having people constantly write off her success as a result of the sex tape no matter how hard she works, but she seems to have taken it into stride. She sometimes gets mocked during interviews by the talk show hosts themselves (sometimes done very subliminally), but she takes it with in a good way and doesn’t seem to display any diva attitude (unlike some other figures in the industry). So, I think Kim definitely earns a tick in my book for the way she handles adversities.

Perhaps you might be facing some adversities in your life now. My questions to you are: “How can you make the best out of this situation? How can you turn this incident from an adversity into an asset?”

5

Build on your success… there is never a “good enough”

I guess sometimes, people like to adopt the “What I’m doing now is good enough” mentality, rest on their laurels, and simply not want to do anymore work. (I’m using “work” loosely here to refer to any act of creation and contribution.) I don’t think there’s ever a “good enough” though. I think all of us have unlimited power to do whatever we want. I think there are unlimited heights to be achieved and it’s up to us to set those targets and achieve them.

Take for example, Bill Gates. That guy is consistently ranked as one of the world’s wealthiest people and recognized as one of the top entrepreneurs of the world. What does he do though? Does he stop working, kick back, relax, and enjoy his riches? No! Bill Gates proceeded to found Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, which has since become the largest transparently operated charitable foundation in the world.

I think the true indicator of one’s long-term success is what the person does after the person achieves initial success. Does the person kick back, relax, and do nothing in life? Or does the person strive to work harder, better, and supersede his/her past results? There’s no right or wrong answer here. The person’s actions (or lack of) will simply determine how he/she does in the long haul.

6

Learn to give and share

I think it’s great that she has such a sharing and giving attitude; this is probably why she has become so famous too. If Kim was to do KUWTK by herself in the beginning; if she had not looped her family members into the world of fame, I don’t think she would have become so popular. People catch the show because they are intrigued by their family, sister, couple, and interpersonal relationship dynamics. It is the collective power of her family that has propped her to where it is today. The success of all the Kardashian family members is clearly built off one another.

Do you have a giving attitude, or do you like to withhold success for yourself? I used to be the latter person; today I’m working on being more giving to others around me. Looking back, my desire to withhold success from others is because I felt deprived and insecure of my success. I have learned that 

such an attitude such not help me to grow; it also comes from a scarcity mentality.

7

Embrace yourself

The last lesson that I feel we can take away from the Kardashians is the way they openly embrace themselves, be it their Armenian culture, themselves as people, or their own beauty.

They openly embrace their Armenian heritage (not to alienate non-Armenians, but simply as part of embracing their heritage) and mention it quite often on the show. They are among the most famous Armenians today and have driven greater awareness for the culture. Several years ago, people might have seen fair-skin Caucasians as the ideal standard of beauty; the Kardashians have helped to introduce different images and ethnicities as beauty standards too.

Before Kim became insanely famous, huge boobs and hips were not part of media’s ideal image of beauty; being a size-zero, stick skinny figure was. There were (still are) frequent comments lambasting her for being fat and having a fat ass. She did not starve herself to become stick skinny though, but instead embraced her curves. Today, the media projects her voluptuous figure as one of the sexiest bodies in the world.

Khloe is frequently touted as a great example for plus-size women today. Despite being under intense public scrutiny about her weight and despite wanting to lose weight herself, she does not turn to self-harming methods to do so. In her 2009 interview with Life & Style magazine, she mentioned that she was anorexic when she was 15; it is good that she has since addressed her anorexic tendencies (though it seems that she still has emotional eatingissues).