Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Imposer

The critic Kenneth Tyman found that, the gift of talent apart, what enables one to exercise that talent is the ability to impose oneself. Roman Polanski, Karl Lagerfeld, Barack Obama and Julie Taymor are among those who definitely possess this gift; those who don't have it can't be named because, notwithstanding their immense talents, nobody knows them. How do you know if someone has it? Tyman's answer: An imposer is a person about whom one worries whether his response to one's next remark will be a smile or a snarl. Check it out yourself next time you meet a genius, if he or she is inspiring in you a need for his or her approval and a fear for his or her disapprobation.

2 comments:

  1. Imposing, that sounds aggressively. But if you are going to list the people being estimated as an imposer you´ll even find some rather calm and complentating samples. It is not a matter of volume, what is it – aside of the tools of a salesman?

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  2. Immense self-confidence, I guess.

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