She bangs, she bangs!!!

Do you know this face? Do you remember this face? This guy got his 15 minutes or more like his 15 weeks of fame in 2004. Actually he was still performing in 2011. He's made a bit of money out of it and I suppose he is the one that is laughing all the way to the bank. We were laughing back at the beginning of 2004 but he made an impact. 

I don't want to critique his ability. That is what Simon Cowell is there for. I would like to focus on him and suggest that he is or was an introvert who for this particular performance played the role, very successfully mind you of the situational extrovert. 

Those of you who are not regular followers of my work, a situational extrovert is someone who is usually happy being by themselves or with a close friend or two literally becoming the life and soul of the party. It is like they have had Red Bull injected into their veins and that they are going to jump around like there is no tomorrow. 

In the two minutes we are introduced to William Hung we find out that he is an engineering student at the University of California, Berkeley and that he doesn't have any formal music training. He goes on stage and gives an unforgettable audition. Unfortunately, unforgettable in the negative sense. He was terrible but he was honest and he came out an obvious winner.

The reason I say that William Hung was a situational extrovert is when you listen to him when he is talking. At the time, Hung was about 20 years old. I found out later that he was born in Hong Kong and had gone to live in the US when he was about 9 or 10. When I heard this I was really surprised because he still spoke with a very distinctive Chinese accent. In my experience, people who go to a different country when they are that young usually start speaking the language of that country quite quickly and usually by the time they are 20 they sound like a native speaker.  

I remember I used to work with a guy who grew up in Taiwan and had gone to the US when he was 13 and you couldn't tell that he was not a native speaker of English. He sounded as American as apple pie. 

So why did this 20 year old Hung still sound like he had just jumped off the boat the day before? I believe that he was a shy child. He probably didn't have many friends and the friends he did have he would have probably spoken Cantonese around them. 

As you are growing up you are influenced by your friends, by what the do and what they say and you start sounding like them so I'm guessing that is why Hung still sounded like he had just stepped off the boat.

My point is not to bag him or his family, my point is to show that with a little bit of effort and trying to jump out of your comfort zone you can achieve things that you may never have dreamed of. 

Do you think Hung dreamed of becoming an international music sensation when he was growing up? I doubt it. But he saw his opportunity and he gave it a go. He stepped out of that introverted shadow and becoming an extrovert for a short time.

This is what you and I have to concentrate on, stepping out of that shadow for a short time to make an impact on the world. If you need inspiration, think about William Hung. Apparently he made over $1 million from his singing career. Not bad for someone willing to take a risk and jump out of his introverted state.

William Hung tried out for American Idol. What are you going to do?