Lesson 1 – Entertain yourself, not others

I learned this lesson from my brother. He always laughs about the stupidest shit. It could be a gif depicting a squirrel falling from a tree, or funny lyrics, or a fart – his sense of humor is what you could call simple. The point is, he is constantly entertaining himself. Himself is key because he doesn’t do it for others. Everyone is welcome to join him and see what’s so funny, but he doesn’t try to make others laugh. If they do, cool. If not, then he has fun on his own.

By doing that others get drawn to him, and become curious why he has so much fun. Everyone wants to be around fun people. It adds value to their lives. Trust me, no one ever forgets the guy who made them laugh. But everyone forgets (or at least avoids) the clown who tried to be funny for two hours.

Lesson 2 – Be blunt, be controversial, be real

You can’t become memorable by always playing it safe. Everyone wants to be liked, and most people avoid conflict like the plague. But by doing that, you position yourself in the middle. Neither A, nor B. Neither black, nor white. People remember extremes, not mediocrity.

Speak your mind. Have an opinion, even if it might piss some people off. And disagree if you disagree. By doing that, you will instantly become more interesting and as a consequence more memorable.

Lesson 3 – Put on your talking hat

People will never remember the guy who just stands there and says nothing. You have got to participate actively in the conversation!

Ask questions, show interest, tell stories, share insights. Whatever you do, talk to people!

Lesson 4 – Be unusual

When someone breaks the cultural norms of daily life it draws a lot of attention. Just think of a naked guy in a restaurant to get the idea.

But there are also many ways to be positively different. The easiest is to prepare funny and interesting answers to standard questions like, “How are you?”, “What do you do?”, “Where are you from?”.

You will get asked these questions thousands of times throughout your life. So it makes sense to sit down for a few hours and prepare great responses.

Final lesson – Trigger emotions

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

-Maya Angelou

But how can you make others feel? Here are a few tips:

• Discuss heatedly.
• Show vulnerability.
• Screw up and apologize.
• Make them laugh.
• Really listen to problems and dreams.
• Stroke egos with compliments and by asking for advice.
• Hug longer.
• Get drunk together.
• Use people’s first name more often.
• Tell stories, not just information.
• Don’t take yourself too seriously.
• Be brutally honest.
• Use fewer words and easier sentences but express them with more emotion.
• Be unexpectedly helpful and courteous.