POWER

Court Attention At All Costs

Burning more brightly than those around you is a skill with which no one is born. You must learn to attract attention. 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 as 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 farther 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.

The court of Louis XIV contained many talented writers, artists, great beauties, and men and women of impeccable virtue but no one was more talked about than the Duke of Lauzun. The duke was short, almost dwarfish, and he was prone to the most insolent forms of behavior - he slept with the king's mistress, and openly insulted, not only the courtiers but the king himself. Louis was so beguiled by the duke's eccentricities that he could not bear his absences from the court. It was simple: The strangeness of the duke's character attracted attention. Once people were enthralled by him, they wanted him around, at any cost.'

Society crave 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. Court controversy, even scandal. It is better to be attacked than to be ignored.

If you find yourself in a lowly position, which affords you little opportunity, an effective trick is to attack the most visible, most famous, most powerful person you can find. When Pietro Aretino, Even when I am railed at, I get my quota of renown. - Pietro Aretino, 1492-1556 a young Roman servant boy of the sixteenth century, wanted to get attention, as a writer of verses, he decided to publish a series of satirical poems ridiculing the pope and his affection for a pet elephant. The attack put Aretino in the public eye immediately. A slanderous attack on a person of power would have a similar effect. Remember, however, to use such attacks sparingly after you have the public's attention, because the act can wear thin.

Once in the limelight, you must constantly renew it by adapting and varying your method of courting attention. If you do not, the public will grow tired, will take you for granted, and will move on to a newer star. The game requires constant vigilance and creativity. Pablo Picasso never allowed himself to fade into the background; if his name became too attached to a particular style, he would deliberately upset the public with a new series of paintings, which went against all expectations. Better to create something ugly and disturbing, he believed, Than to allow viewers to become too familiar with his work. Understand: People feel superior to the person whose actions they can predict. If you show them who is in control against their expectations, you both gain their respect and tighten your hold on their fleeting attention.

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