|
 Charm,
The Most Essential Ingredient
How 10 Celebrities Charmed Their Way to the Top…
[Michael Levine] 9/7/05
It’s one thing to make a conscious decision towards improving
your natural ability to be charming in order to enhance your
personal life, but it’s being able to charm your way to
the top of your career life that really counts. Many people never
try to improve their charm, because they believe that charm is
innate and cannot be learned.
We can learn a good
deal about charm by noticing it in others and following the
examples they provide. Consider my list of
the “Charming Top 10”- a group of people who are
especially noteworthy for their ability to use charm to overcome
harsh circumstances.
Contributors
Michael Levine - Contributor
Michael
Levine is the founder of the prominent public relations
firm Levine Communications Office in Los Angeles.
He is the author of 16 books, including “Charming
Your Way to the Top” (The Lyons Press, 2004).. www.LCOonline.com -
E-mail:mlevine@LCOonline.com [go
to Levine index] |
1. JOHN F. KENNEDY- As a dynamic, compassionate and visionary
man, Kennedy defined a generation during his short time in the
worldwide spotlight. Even the human foibles that have been revealed
since his death have failed to dim the light of his charm.
2. BILL CLINTON-
Wherever you may stand on his politics or his moral choices,
the one thing that everyone who has ever met
our former president agrees on is that when he’s talking
to you, you receive his full attention. He conveys this with
every look and with a remarkable ability to listen. This charm
allowed him to be elected President despite the allegations of
scandal already growing around him.
3. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER- Armed with a thick accent and no
political experience, he charmed the voters of California into
making him governor. Even allegations of impropriety could not
stop him, due to his ability to portray himself as a no-nonsense
man of action with a clear vision for the state.
4. JON STEWART- How
many people could make fun of newsmakers and then invite them
to sit and chat about the affairs of the
day? Stewart is never anything but polite to his guests, even
when it’s clear he disagrees with them. His humor, while
sharp, never descends to hurtful mockery.
5. ANTHONY HOPKINS-
One of the few actors who could have turned a psychotic, brutal
serial killer into a hero and a legend. With
Hopkins’ talent and fearlessness as a performer, a monster
became suave, respectable and the ultimate charmer.
6. ELLEN DEGENERES-
It would have been hard for anyone else to come out as a lesbian
on national TV. Because it was Ellen,
who had always been one of us, we didn’t have to blink
an eye. She was always herself, sometimes awkward but still a
friend we could root for.
7. HUGH GRANT- Despite
public scandal, audiences still love Mr. Grant, even when he
portrays cads and shallow, aging adolescents.
His looks don’t hurt, but there are a lot of handsome men
who wouldn’t be as effective. Why? Because, besides his
suave manner, Grant never forgets to show us that even a cad
isn’t all-bad.
8. MARY TYLER MOORE-
Okay, so she turned the world on with her smile. As an encore,
she discussed her son’s death
and her own alcoholism in television interviews, sharing her
struggles and vulnerabilities with the world. Over the years,
her consistent authenticity charmed us more than anything else.
9. REESE WITHERSPOON-
Witherspoon found the humanity and grit in a role that could
have been dismissed as another “dumb
blonde”. She shows the heart and soul in her characters,
putting so much into them that we can’t help but love her
for it.
10. AL HIRSCHFELD-
The very nature of his job could have made him mean-spirited
and unpopular—drawing caricatures of
the celebrated. Hirschfeld worked with such obvious appreciation
for his subjects, however, that they considered his exaggeration
of their flaws the ultimate compliment.
The charming people listed above provide examples of many ways
to improve your ability to charm others. By finding an example
that you relate to, you can maximize your natural talent and
charm. If you are an actor or actress, have you revealed your
strengths and your vulnerabilities to your audience, as Reese
Witherspoon or Mary Tyler Moore have? Are you smart, but sometimes
forget to be modest and polite? Then look to models like Jon
Stewart and Al Hirschfeld. As you can see, there as many ways
to develop charm as there are places that charm can take you
in life. If you set your sights high, with keen observation and
practice, you just may find yourself charming your way to the
top. tOR
copyright
2005 Michael Levine
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