I’ve got three quotes about celebrities for you, and then I will tell you about a hack. A hack to make you be seen as a natural-born leader — or at least a necessary ingredient for it.
But first, the quotes.
Quote 1:
“Patton believed that it was critical for a general to stand out and to be seen by his troops, a philosophy that conveniently coincided with his ego. He dressed impeccably in a colourful uniform and knee-high boots, sporting ivory-handled pistols.”
Quote 2:
“Long before ‘mumblecore’ became a film genre, critics complained about Brando’s speech patterns until it finally became clear they were an integral part of his performances.”
Quote 3:
“Prince’s handwriting was beautiful, with a fluidity that suggested it poured out of him almost involuntarily. It also verged on illegible. Even in longhand, he wrote in his signature style, an idiosyncratic precursor of textspeak that he’d perfected back in the eighties: ‘Eye’ for ‘I,” ‘U’ for ‘you,” ‘R’ for ‘are.'”
A few days ago, I started thinking about natural authority.
What makes it so that some people just seem imbued with the royal farr? So that they command obedience or respect or awe, even if they aren’t wearing a uniform… or standing on stage in front of an adoring crowd… or climbing alone, without ropes, up a 3,000-foot cliff of sheer rock?
Well, I wrote down a bunch of ideas. If you like, I’ll share them all with you in time.
Today I’ll just tell you about one. You can see it illustrated in the quotes above.
Got it? It’s just this:
Patton, Brando, and Prince all had a unique style. In some ways, a style completely beyond the pale of what was normal or acceptable.
In one case (Brando), it was probably inborn, or at least unconscious.
In another (Patton), it was clearly cultivated.
In the last (Prince), it was a bit of both.
So that’s your first step to natural authority, should you want that position in other people’s minds.
Maybe you already have your own inborn style. In that case, emphasize it.
Maybe you don’t. Then you can consciously build it.
And style can be anything. How you talk, how you write, how you dress, how you walk, how you spell. Some of them, or all. Whatever your audience can see. And maybe even stuff they can’t, because it’s somehow still likely to shine through.
It might not instantly make you a star or a king or queen. But like I said, I think it’s a necessary ingredient, at least in some form. So you might as well thinking about it now, while I write up the emails about the other bits you’ll need.
Emails? Yes, emails. I write a daily email newsletter. If you’d like to sign up for it, here’s where to go.