KEYS TO POWER.
Burning more brightly than those around you is a skill that no one is born with. You have to learn to attract attention, “as surely as the lodestone attracts iron.” At the start of your career, you must attach your name and reputation to a quality, an image, that sets you apart from other people. This image can be something like a characteristic style of dress, or a personality quirk that amuses people and gets talked about. Once the image is established, you have an appearance, a place in the sky for your star. It is a common mistake to imagine that this peculiar appearance of yours should not be controversial, that to be attacked is somehow bad. Nothing could be further from the truth. To avoid being a flash in the pan, and having your notoriety eclipsed by another, you must not discriminate between different types of attention; in the end, every kind will work in your favor. Barnum, we have seen, welcomed personal attacks and felt no need to defend himself. He deliberately courted the image of being a humbug
– 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene
Is there a finer quote that encapsulates the need to stand out from the crowd, to create controversy, to stir up notoriety, than this one?
When we think of ‘persuasion’ we often imagine it means being ingratiating. In fact, it is nothing of the kind.
In all areas of life, from business to seduction, there is huge value in burning brighter than everyone else.
In fact, if you fail to, in this attention economy, it is likely that you will be overlooked, forgotten, even spurned.
It is only when you provoke that you truly attract.
In 2018, as in the days of the Roman Empire, people demand spectacle, colour, excess, gaiety and extremes of temperament. In the post-science age the ethos of the circus rules once more.
Play to peoples’ fantasies. Be the showman that they crave.
Do this and you will never want for money or company.
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