History’s Most Interesting People on How to Live a Memorable Life
Albert Einstein: Ignore the Label the World Slaps On Your Back
“I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss, and by makeup a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever.”
– Albert Einstein
Einstein is considered one of the greatest geniuses in the history of mankind, up there with the likes of Leonardo Da Vinci and Archimedes.
Yet he failed school and was considered a schmuck who’d never produce anything useful, let alone world changing. He was also a Jew and suffered much discrimination during his lifetime.
But he didn’t let these things stop him. The world is a funny place: it’ll tell you that you fit in a certain category, but if you ignore the world and achieve things transcendent of labels, it will respect you for it. Don’t allow the pigeonhole society has reserved for you to keep you away from your dreams.
Marie Antoinette: Strength and Courage Are Not Useless Clichés
Courage? The moment when my troubles are going to end is not the moment when my courage is going to fail me.
– Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette spoke these words to the priest as she was led to the guillotine to be executed. Even in the face of the end of it all, she is remembered hundreds of years later for having strength and courage at all times, even during a time in history when women were supposed to be meek and weak.
Fear is a comfort blanket for many people, giving us an excuse to stay in the shadows where it’s safe. But success doesn’t hide in the shadows: the only way to achieve it is to be courageous in the face of all obstacles and believe you will come out on the other side better for it.
The scared are all too easily forgotten.
Marilyn Monroe: Extravagance Will Always Draw Attention
“Unfortunately, I am involved in a freedom ride protesting the loss of the minority rights belonging to the few remaining earthbound stars. All we demanded was our right to twinkle.”
– Marilyn Monroe
This is what Monroe told Robert F. Kennedy when she declined an invitation to a party they were throwing, and nothing is more extravagant that someone protesting for the right to be extravagant.
Extravagance is all about being different, being loud and visible over everyone else.
And it doesn’t have to be a slimy Hollywood affair where celebrities with egos like a peacock’s plume spend the day preening their feathers. Some extravagance can be tasteful and works wonders; consider the “Boom!” effect of a Steve Jobs presentation, introducing a new product. The web is alive with the hype for days, weeks, sometimes months.
Extravagance is effectively memorable, and Marilyn Monroe is certainly well remembered.
Elvis Presley: There’s Immense Originality in Being Yourself
“The first time that I appeared on stage, it scared me to death. I really didn’t know what all the yelling was about. I didn’t realize that my body was moving. It’s a natural thing to me. So to the manager backstage I said, ‘What’d I do? What’d I do?’ And he said, ‘Whatever it is, go back and do it again.”
– Elvis Presley
Elvis did such a great job of branding himself into the public consciousness that some people don’t realize he has a last name and a whole bunch of crackpots think he’s still alive.
He did it just by being himself.
The old corny cliché that everyone is unique actually has some truth to it, and if we let go of the fear that prevents us from being ourselves in public, and stop trying to put up the façade of being someone we’re not, we can show the world something refreshing: genuine, unique originality.
That’s memorable. Just ask the dead rocker who is, to many people, still alive.
John Lennon: Don’t Be Afraid to Be Controversial
“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first — rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”
– John Lennon
John Lennon sure knew how to use controversy to his advantage; that quote was one of the most controversial of his career and it gave rise to outrage and hate across the world, all of which led to more album sales and a reputation that would make him memorable well after his death.
For him, a radical who wanted to make people angry and make people think, it was a win-win. He made his point, succeeded in causing an outrage, and made money from it.
Want one sure-fire way to be remembered? Be controversial. It works like sweet candy every time.
Posted: 20 June 2011
