Blog Post 1: What lies behind Mariah Carey's success?

The voice, the hits, the legend. The woman who shocked the world in not less than 23 years ago with her majestic take on the American patriotic song, "America The Beautiful". Reputable for owning an outstanding five octave vocal range. The original singer and composer of the now-considered Christmas classic, "All I Want For Christmas Is You". Selling an outstanding number of 200 Million records worldwide, with 18 number one Billboard Hot 100 entries - two of which are deemed "Song Of The Decade", owning 176 awards including "Most Successful Female Artist of The Millennium" and five Grammys.

We all know her name. She's Mariah Carey, of course! There is no denying her notable fame in the music industry, but let's take a deeper look and see what made a woman like herself such a prominent figure in the world today. What lies behind Mariah Carey's success? What made her the person she is right now?

Recently, I've been reading some articles about the psychology behind success and happened to stumble upon this article "The Psychology of Success" by Joyce Marter from huffingtonpost.com in which the writer explained the factors on making a successful person - in any field. Overall, she mentioned ten.

First is "To become conscious of why you do what you do". She explained that everything a person goes through happens for a reason. In order to start a new perspective in life, you must learn to let go of the old habits that do not help you in growing more as a person and limit you from understanding what you should be doing.

Second, "Open yourself up to prosperity". After letting go of all the negative stuff, you must be mindful not to constrain yourself. You must welcome all that is good into your life.

Third, "Bring your attention to the present". Having said that, you must let go of the past and stop obsessing over the future.

Fourth, "You must discover the power of intention". Joyce Marter quoted Wayne Dyer who said, "Our intentions create our reality." In this, you should be able to identify you primary intentions and live by them.

The fifth is to "Develop one's vision". Positive visualization increases the likelihood of success. You must set a goal in which you will be able to use your strengths for the common good.

For the sixth pointer, "Silence your inner critic". This is for you to look at your own negativity in a neutral way.

Seventh, "You must practice positive thinking". Choose to be your best cheerleader rather than your worst critic.

Eighth is "Practice acceptance". A person cannot always change how others think or feel that's why we should learn to forgive and let go of resentments.

Ninth is "Appreciate that personal and professional progress is not linear". This teaches you to learn from your mistakes, and to be resilient and forge ahead.

And lastly, "Love yourself". Practice self-compassion and self-care. You can do so by striving to reach a goal for yourself.

"Being successful requires us to wake up and be present in our own lives, aligning ourselves our greatest destiny and mapping out the way. We must consciously select a path that facilitates the awakening of our awareness, both individually and collectively. Everything in life is interconnected. As we evolve, our relationships, work and lives blossom. And, conversely, as we are impacted by our relationships and our work, we evolve." said Joyce Marter.

Digging deep into Mariah's history, I can see it's relation to the factors mentioned above. Probably, the reason why Mariah started her career as a singer was because of her mother's influence. As a professional opera singer and vocal coach, Patricia Carey raised and trained Mariah to grow up in the same field as her. And although Mariah went through a lot of hardships as a child for being part of a poor, bi-racial family who suffered extreme racism, she focused on her main goal and had learned to let go of all the negativity in her life.

During her teenage days, Mariah worked as a waitress while doing a part-time job as a back-up singer and had since then, recorded a lot of mixtapes with her singing demos. Through this, I can say that she really intended to become a singer and had never stopped pursuing her life-long dream. She held her head up high and kept a positive attitude while waiting for what is to happen. Finally, the day came when she met rising pop singer, Brenda K. Starr who later introduced her to the head of Sony Entertainment, Tommy Mottola. After three days of nerve-racking anticipation, Mottola broke the news to Mariah that she made it in and is expected to sign a contract for Sony Entertainment.

Soon after that, she married Mottola and everything went well for her. That was until their ugly public divorce which led to the termination of contract. Even so, Mariah accepted her fate and was not discouraged by it. Virgin Records, then, offered her a contract which lasted for not more than two years because of her "breakdown" incident. She was hospitalized for extreme exhaustion and was later confined in a rehabilitation center. Mariah had lost control of her career. Her album did not make it big and was even considered as one of the most epic flops at that time. She was also paid by Virgin Records just to end the deal. During that experience, she was able to do a lot of thinking and once she got out of the hospital, she told fans not to worry and that she will take better care of herself this time now that she knows how harsh the consequences are. She had also learned how to love herself more, as it is evident today.

Years after being away from the limelight, she broke out from the silence with the biggest selling album of 2005 and was later crowned "Most Successful Female Artist of the Millennium". Obviously, she took the past to her advantage and used it as a stepping stone that had helped her become the more confident and successful woman she is today.

Unarguably, Mariah's former breakdown is just another testament that failure isn't all bad when we know how to make the best out of it. Supporting that statement would be the article "Why you should Give yourself Permission to Screw up" by Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson from 99u.com. This article explains that there are two different mindsets when dealing with a task. The first one is when a person is focused more on proving one's ability for the sake of showing off which Dr. Heidi refers to as the "Be Good" mindset. Anyone who has that kind of mindset is said to more likely fail especially when put under pressure unlike a person with a "Be Better" mindset, who is not afraid of screwing up thus ending up committing less mistakes.

Although, if you find yourself stuck with the "Be Good" mindset, there are three steps to get rid of it. First one is to start anew. Keep in mind that it is okay to make a mistake as long as you know how to use it to make yourself a better individual and finally break free from it. Second, ask for guidance from people with more experience in that matter like mentors, teachers, parents, etc. These are the people who can really help you. And lastly, try not to compare yourself with others. Instead, look at your past accomplishments and do your best to surpass them in every way you can. Dr. Heidi said, "We need to be continuously striving to go beyond our comfort zones if we want to be successful."

Before her singing career started, Mariah tried a lot of jobs. She also entered beauty school, hoping it would somehow be a fallback career option, but it only lasted for 500 hours because she quit. And even though she did, she considers it as a failure that lead to her success today. Think of it this way; if she were a beautician instead of the famous singer, Mariah Carey, then she wouldn't have been worth $500 Million, she wouldn't have met her husband, she wouldn't have gave birth to "dembabies", we wouldn't be humming that number one Christmas song every year, and many wouldn't have made it because they weren't able to hear those inspirational lyrics she wrote.

When looking back at Mariah during the 90s, one can say she had a "Be Better" mindset because she was always ready to start afresh and was very open to criticism. She asked for people's help for her to know where she needs improvement. And even with all the things going her way, she stayed grounded and tried her best to become a better person everyday. I now truly understand that in order to achieve success, one must go through failure first and that is what made Mariah Carey the successful woman she is right now.