Even if you didn’t watch The Oscars this week, chances are you heard about “the selfie that broke the Internet”. Ellen DeGeneres hosted The Oscars in her typical laid back, slightly irreverent, style. During the show she decided to take a ‘selfie’ with Meryl Streep, which turned into a group selfie with lots of stars jumping spontaneously into the shot. She posted it on Twitter and it apparently broke the record for re-tweets.
The reason I mention this photo, is not just because it was a great photo, but because of one person who jumped into the shot. If you are near a computer, take another look at the photo and you’ll see an attractive young black man with glasses right at the front of the shot. I assumed it was an actor I hadn’t heard of. But it turns out, he is the brother of Lupita Nyong’o (winner of the Best Supporting Actress award), a college student and not in the least bit ‘famous’.
What a great example! Instead of being intimidated by the famous people around him, he jumped right in with them. Instead of wondering if he was entitled to be there, he had confidence to take advantage of a situation. It is likely that he didn’t think it through all that much before he did it: as his sister said in an interview after The Oscars, “he lives his life with an exclamation point!”. His natural inclination was to be where the action was and jump in with both feet.
What a lesson we can learn from him: be bold and embrace opportunities. Who knows where they might lead!
Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender
