In today’s world, everything is judge by its appearance.

While creating your new public image, and establishing your reputation, what you want to do is to court attention at all cost. In today’s world, everything is judge by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. You have to draw attention to yourself by creating an unforgettable, even controversial image when appropriate.

Court scandal when necessary. Do anything to make yourself seem larger than life. Make no distinction between kinds of attention, notoriety of any sort will bring you power. Better to be slandered than ignored.

Never let yourself get lost in the crowd. Stand out. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colourful, more mysterious than the bland and timid masses.

All you need to ensure success is notoriety.

Understand the fundamental truth about attracting attention: Once people’s eyes are on you, you have a special legitimacy.

Creating interest means creating a crowd; every crowd has a silver lining. And crowds tend to act in conjunction. If one person stops to see you beggarman laying bricks in the street, more will do the same. They will gather like dust bunnies. Then, given a gentle push, they will come to you and watch your show.

To create a crowd, you have to do something different and odd. Any kind of curiosity will serve the purpose, for crowds are magnetically attracted by the unusual and inexplicable. And once you have their attention, never let it go. If it veers toward other people, it does so at your own expense. At the beginning of your rise to the top, spend all your energy on attracting attention. And, most important, the quality of the attention is irrelevant. Like they say: Bad publicity is better than no publicity”. No matter how badly you are criticized, or how slanderously personal are the attacks, never complain. Attention, whether negative or positive, is one of the main ingredient of success. The worst fate in the world for anyone who yearns fame, and, of course, power is to be ignored.

Burning more brightly than those around you is a skill that no one is born with. You have to learn to attract attention. At the start of your career, when re-creating and re-inventing yourself, 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 peculiarity that amuses people and gets talked about you. Once the image is established, you have an appearance, a place in the sky for your star.

Court controversy, even scandal

Today, it is a common mistake to imagine that this particular appearance of yours should not be controversial, that to be attacked or slandered 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 of attention will work in your favor. Society craves larger-than-life figures, people who stand above the general mediocrity.

Never be afraid of the qualities that set you apart and draw attention to you. When useful or necessary, do not hesitate to court controversy, even scandal. It is better to be attacked, even slandered, then ignored. All livings are ruled by this law, and all professionals must have a bit of showman about them. Welcome personal attacks and feel no need to defend yourself; just make sure, however, whatever you do, to maintain your good reputation as an honest person. This being said, if you find yourself in a lowly position that offers little opportunity for you to draw attention, an effective strategic move is to attack the most visible, most powerful person you can find. Remember, however, to use such tactics sparingly after you have the public’s attention, when the act can wear thin.

Adapt to the changing times

Once in the limelight you must constantly renew it by adapting and varying your method of courting attention. If you don’t, your audience will grow tired, will take you for granted, and will move on to a new star. Never allow yourself to fade into the background.

Maintaining attention requires constant vigilance and creativity. If and when your name becomes too attached to a particular style or brand, deliberately upset your audience with a new sequence of actions that will go against all expectations. Understand this: People feel superior to the person whose actions they can predict. If you show them who is in control by playing against their expectations, you both gain their respect and tighten your hold on their fleeting attention.

Better to create something ugly and disturbing than to let your audience grow too familiar with your work. Always act in mysterious ways. There is room only for one actor at a time in the limelight’s narrow beam; do whatever it takes to make yourself its focus. Be ostentatious and be seen; what is not seen is as though it did not exist.

Create an air of mystery

In a world growing increasingly banal and familiar, what seems enigmatic instantly draw attention. Never make it too clear what you are doing or about to do; never not reveal all your cards. An air of mystery heightens your presence by creating anticipation; everyone is watching you to see what will happen next. The mysterious cannot be grasped, and what cannot be seized and consumed creates power.

Do not imagine that to create an air of mystery you have to be grand and awe-inspiring; mystery that is woven into your day-to-day demeanor, and is subtle, has that much more power to fascinate and attract attention. Understand this: Most people are upfront, can be read like an open book, take little care to control their word or image, and are hopelessly predictable. By simply holding back, keeping silent, occasionally uttering ambiguous phrases, deliberately appearing inconsistent, and acting odd in the subtlest of ways, you will emanate an aura of mystery. The people around you will then magnify that aura by constantly trying to interpret you.

If you do not declare yourself immediately, you arouse expectation. Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery stirs up veneration. And when you explain, be not too explicit. An air of mystery can make the mediocre appear intelligent and profound.

If your social position prevents you from completely wrapping your actions in mystery, you must at least learn to make yourself less obvious. Every now and then, act in a way that does not mesh with other people’s perception of you. This way you keep those around you on the defensive, eliciting the kind of attention that makes you powerful.

Never offend or challenge the reputation of those above you

In the beginning of your rise to the top, you must attract attention at all cost, but as you rise higher you must constantly adapt. Never wear the public out with the same approach. An air of mystery works wonders when you need to develop an aura of power and get yourself noticed, but it must seem measured and under control. Do not let your air of mystery be slowly transformed into a reputation for deceit. The mystery you create must seem a game, playful and nonthreatening. Recognize when it goes too far, and pull back.

There are times when the need for attention must be deferred, and when scandal and notoriety are the last things you want to create. The attention you attract must never offend or challenge the reputation of those above you, not, at any rate, if they are secure. You will see not only paltry but desperate by comparison. There is an art to knowing when to draw notice and when to withdraw.

Never appear overly greedy for attention, then, for it signals insecurity, and insecurity drives power away. Understand that there are times when it is not in your best interest to be the center of attention. When in the presence of the powerful and mighty, a king or a queen, or the equivalent thereof, bow and retreat to the shadows; never compete.

JMD

Owner of Bunkumless.com and King Global Earth and Environmental Sciences Corporation, JMD, a former attorney, is a Columnist for The Futurist Daily News and editor of the Social and Political Blog JMDlive.com  Follow JMD @ jmdlive

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