Celebrities Aren't Sages
By: Stuart Knight (Founder and CEO) | October 30, 2026
Hey there my friend,
Have you ever been in a situation where seeing someone you admire out of their element forces you to come to terms with the fact that they are not perfect? For example, you see that CEO you’ve always looked up to skating at some charity event holding on to the boards like Bambi and you think, “What? Doesn’t being a great leader automatically make you an Olympic skater?” Or one night you bump into that neighbour with the perfectly manicured lawn at your local bar, and they are sloppy drunk and you think, “Ok, maybe not everything in this person’s life is put together?”
We’ve all had those moments, and they definitely mess with the narrative we have about people in our minds. And we don’t want those narratives to change because it’s not fun finding out the world isn’t what we thought it was. I think that’s something we all experience being the children of our parents. We grow up seeing them as having superhero abilities such as knowing the answers to all of our questions, having solutions to all of our problems and being able to pick us up with one hand. Until that day comes when we witness them being too afraid to try something new, speaking in ugly tones or making a major mistake. Just like that, in the blink of an eye, our story of them being infallible crumbles away, and we have to accept them for what they are. A human being, just like the rest of us.
As a professional keynote speaker, I’ve often struggled with this because I want my audience to look at me as someone who has it all figured out, even though I know nothing could be further from the truth. Here I am, commanding their attention for a full hour, at the very least I should be perfect shouldn’t I? If they knew I wasn’t always as patient with my kids as I should be, can be prone to procrastination or that I have done things I regret, would it be fair of me to expect them to heed the advice I’m offering from the stage?
Luckily in these moments, I don’t fall too far down the rabbit hole of self deprecation as I quickly remind myself that this is true of every person you meet. Someone might drink a bit too much wine on the weekends, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t the best person to teach you how to build a deck. A doctor might have a really short temper, but it doesn’t mean she’s not bang on with her diagnosis of your health. And yes, your parents might suck at saying "I love you", but it doesn’t mean they didn’t mold you to be a good person. Everyone has their strengths, and when someone offers advice in an area they know well, I think it’s worth listening to.
Which brings me to celebrity culture and my curiosity as to why people listen to their advice. Before that, what makes a person a celebrity in the first place? To me, a celebrity is someone that is extremely good at something society places greater value on over everything else. So, over skills such as plumbing, teaching, building, etc., a person's ability to do things such as act, sing, dance or play a sport is more highly revered and thus the reason a person wants to have their picture taken with them. Today, society has stretched that admiration even further than requiring someone to possess the skill themselves. Now, simply being the child of someone with those skills is enough, regardless of that child’s level of talent.
Obviously, any sane person reading this must admit that we are a funny species in the way we fawn over someone being a great artist or athlete over them being a great doctor, therapist or dare I say parent. And for the record, I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with admiring someone for their talents. I’ve offered praise to countless celebrities throughout my life for the enjoyment I’ve experienced watching them do their thing. However, the praise I’ve offered them is no more than the praise I’ve given to the guy who stopped my ceiling from leaking, or the woman who cut my hair in the exact way I asked. For me, one person’s talent doesn’t supersede another.
I think everyone deserves a round of applause for anything in life they have proven themselves to be good at. And if they haven’t, well then I think they shut the hell up! If a plumber came to your house, showed you their credentials, and then began critiquing your choice of interior design you’d probably think, “What the hell does this guy know!” If a dentist told you what type of contact lenses would best fit your eyes, you’d probably get a second opinion. If a fire broke out in your house, your first call would not be to the police.
But when a celebrity tells us who we should vote for, or how we should feel about conflicts happening thousands of miles away, or offer non-scientific perspectives about what’s happening on the land, in the air and within the sea, many people pull up a chair to listen. And if that celebrity happens to be someone that starred in their favourite film, or wrote the song they played at their wedding, or scored the winning touchdown in their team's Super Bowl victory the credence given to what they are saying is given that much more weight. To the point where it in fact does affect how a person votes, where they donate their money and what they believe about things they admittedly know nothing about. And why would they need to know anything about anything when their favourite celebrity clearly does?
Can you think of anything more laughable than taking the advice of someone who has never once proven that they know what they are talking about? In fact, this is the reason why I literally laugh out loud when my young children tell me how the world works. Not in a mocking way of course, but rather in a way that says, “Ahhhhh, you’re so cute with your big opinions on things you know nothing about!” Trust me when I say that if your car breaks down, I am the absolute last person on earth you should call for advice on what to do, because I have no clue. But what if I were a celebrity? Would that be enough for you to follow my instructions on how to fix it?
The world is complicated, nuanced and never what it seems. Until a person proves they know what they’re talking about, I encourage you to not make things even more confusing by listening to what they have to say. Myself included.
Much Love,
Stuart
PS. Just as being in the spotlight doesn't automatically make someone worth listening to, putting people in a room together doesn't automatically mean they're connecting. That's why we created the Hypha Standard — to make sure human connection gets the attention it deserves.
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