Fame brings celebrity and high regard from adoring and loyal fans in each field of endeavor and it is heady stuff. A performer can easily come to believe that he or she is as good as his or her press. But most people, most artists do not gain fame and fortune. What about those performers who fail, or anyone who fails Curiously enough, failure often serves as its own reward for many people! It brings sympathy from others who are delighted not to be you, and it allows family and friends to lower their expectations of you so that you need not compete with those who have more talent and who succeed. And they find excuses and explanations of your inability to succeed and become famous: you are too sensitive, you are not interested in money, you are not interested in power that fame brings and you are not interested in the loss of privacy it demands, etc all excuses, but comforting to those who fail and those who pretend not to notice the failure.