How to Be a Star

Developing Talent

Find a talent that suits your natural abilities. If you want to be a star, you've got to specialize. What will be the thing that people recognize you for? What's the skill, ability, or talent that will take you to the top? Think about what things come easiest to you, and listen to other people for advice to find your star-making quality. Are you a gifted athlete? When you and your friends get together to play sports, are you always the first picked, or the one to score the most points? If so, you might have the makings of a sports star. Do you love music? Do you enjoy singing, playing an instrument, or dancing to music, you might have the makings of a pop star, a singer, or a rock star. Do you have the gift of gab? Are you a convincing and organizing presence, a leader among your friends? Does everyone listen to what you have to say? If so, you might have the makings of a politician. Do love to pretend? Do you enjoy movies, plays, and television? Do people ever tell you that you have a dramatic presence? If you're a good actor or actress, movie stardom might be in the cards.

Find a coach. Developing your talents into a star-level degree of skill will require help. Whether you want to go pro in acting or sports, politics or music, you've got to get insider info and learn to hone your skills from an expert in the field. Start taking acting or music lessons. Get private coaching for the sport you play. Secure an internship with a local politician, or volunteer for the campaign. Learn everything you can from people who know more than you. Find role-models as well in your field. If you want to be an actor, which actors do you look up to? Who would you like to emulate? Find someone to model your career after.

Study your craft. Whether you do it under the guidance of a coach or go it alone, honing your craft is going to take lots and lots of work. For stars, studying the craft should be a 24/7 occupation. Even if you're flipping burgers, you should be rehearsing your lines. Even if you're just taking the bus to school, you should be going over your practice routines. Absorb all the media that you can. Watch classic movies or listen to the type of music you hope to make.

Practice. Develop a regular practice schedule and devote as much of your free time as possible to improving your talents in your star-making venture. Budding politicians need to practice speeches and public speaking. Musicians need to practice scales. Actors need to rehearse lines and study scenes. Pop stars need to work on their dance moves. Athletes need to train. Be careful to focus on the proper things. For an actor, it can be tempting to get caught up in superficial things. Updating your social networking, checking TMZ, and other gossip rags isn't "practicing" for being a star. It's wasting time. Study your craft, not the other stuff.

Marketing Your Skills

Get an entry-level job in the industry. The first and in many ways the most challenging aspect of being a star is to get noticed. Make the initial contacts with the people who matter in your industry by starting out on the bottom. Just get your foot in the door and have the confidence that your talent will carry you the rest of the way. Want to crack into making movies and get your name in lights? Get a job working as a gaffer. Seat-filling, extra-work, and tech-crew stuff is all a common part of Hollywood. You may want to act, eventually, but if you could put your skills to work as a make-up artist, as a back-up cameraman, as a lighting crew member, you'll be that much closer, and you'll be working. Politicians generally start out working for other campaigns. Volunteer your time for politicians you believe in and make contacts that will help you in your political career. Athletes should work in coaching, or work in stadiums fulfilling other jobs. Work as an usher to get into the games for free, or work the concessions. Tear tickets at Yankee stadium and you may be on the infield someday. Musicians would do well to work for and with other bands. Learn to run live sound and help out at a venue, or get a job selling merch for a band you like. Be a roadie and learn what life on tour is like. Stay close to the action.

Start networking. As you work your way into the industry, make sure to stay in touch with everyone you meet on the way up. Try to meet people who are in the same boat as you, aspiring musicians, actors, politicians, or other athletes, who are at the same level as you are and who have similar goals. Help support each other and celebrate your friends' successes and accomplishments. Work together on your mutual goals. Stardom can get pretty competitive, and it's true that there's not a whole lot of room at the top. But getting locked into petty rivalries can bring you down a lot quicker than it can lift you up. Be positive. Make yourself easy to get in touch with. Start a LinkedIn page or a professional social networking "fan" page for yourself so you can keep your industry contacts and your personal contacts separated and more manageable.

Take the work you can get. A job stumping for a politician you don't particularly like in Des Moines? A third-string job on a team that's the worst in the league? An ad for hemorrhoid cream? These might not sound like ideal situations for a budding star, but work is work. Think of it as building experiences that'll make for a great rags-to-riches story somewhere down the road. Use each opportunity as a chance to prove yourself and to transcend the circumstances with your star-making abilities. Be the star you are.

Be a professional. Amateurs show up to an audition half-prepared, hungover, barely getting it together; movie stars show up well-rested, rehearsed, and ready to get the scene done. Rock stars don't party the night before the show, rock stars make sure they'll be on point for a great performance. Go into every job with professionalism and poise. Behave as if you belong there. Act like a professional, and you'll act like a star.

Get an agent. Making all the contacts you need to in the industry can be very difficult to do alone. In most entertainment fields and in politics as well, you'll need to get in touch with an agent who can help to represent you and set you up with auditions, contacts, and jobs while you focus on the more important work of being the best you can be. Usually, agents will take a percentage of what you make, but sometimes not at first. You may have to be willing to make periodic installments to pay your agent to get you to work at first. Be judicious in picking an agent who'll work with you and get you the contacts and the work that you need.

Recognize the breaks when they come. Whether or not you believe in fate, it's true that a star needs to learn to recognize the breaks when they come and embrace every opportunity as a chance to increase their star power. Check your ego at the door every now and then and give yourself the chance to succeed. A single opportunity may be the difference between regular work and full-on stardom. A small, one-line part in a movie with a well-respected director may seem like a pittance, but it means you're working with the best. That's an opportunity. An opening gig for a big band might seem like a step down if you've been touring on your own, but the chance to open for a hero? That comes along once in a lifetime.

Handling Stardom

Continue challenging yourself in your work. Once you've climbed and scrabbled your way to the top, it's important to stay busy. Celebrities come and go, grabbing their 15 minutes of fame and disappearing just as quickly. But real stars can learn to negotiate their careers to string it into a lifetime of challenging, engaging, and exciting work that people will enjoy watching and living vicariously through for years to come. If you’re an actor, take on diverse roles and do things that will challenge your fans’ conception of you as a performer. Think of Sean Penn in Milk, Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot, and Charlize Theron in Monster. If you’re a musician or another kind of performer, challenge yourself to keep the consistency of your music high. Take time on your recordings and on your performances. Don't go for the cheap and commercial buck. If you're a politician, diversify your interests and be willing to change with the times. Embrace causes that will have you on the right side of history, rather than chasing votes with minute-by-minute opinion poles. Have integrity. If you're an athlete, stay focused on keeping in shape and keeping your game at the highest possible level. Don't get distracted by clubbing, updating your social networking, or doing things that happen off the field. Be the best. Beyoncé Knowles Beyoncé Knowles, Singer & Businesswoman Be willing to work hard and push yourself. "I can never be safe; I always try and go against the grain. As soon as I accomplish one thing, I just set a higher goal. That's how I've gotten to where I am."

Maintain a healthy relationship with the media. Stardom can be a heavy crown to bear and even strong and talented people can fold under the spotlight. Learning to negotiate stardom is a challenge that you should seek head-on and come to terms with as quickly as possible. Learn to share your time in exchange for your celebrity. Learn the name of the reporters you work with on a regular basis and talk to them as you'd talk to anyone. Don't get a big head about the "little" people. If you're followed by paparazzi, give them five minutes of time in exchange for some privacy later on in the night. Throw the dogs a bone. Public flame-outs, like those which Charlie Sheen, John Edwards, and Chad "Ocho-Cinco" Johnson have suffered, are difficult to bounce back from. Learn to recognize when you might need a break to avoid destroying your career.

Take time away from the spotlight. Bright lights CAN melt stars. Let yourself rest up, relax, and spend time away from the center of attention so you can come back to your career as a star rested and prepared to do the work that got you there. If you've been making blockbusters, go somewhere and do a small play that you believe in. Dedicate everything you've got to the intricacies and the art. Record your next album remotely in a far-away studio instead of downtown L.A.

Stay healthy. Stardom means fast-living, staying always on the move, sleeping little, and running yourself ragged. It can be very difficult for some people to eat right, avoid drugs and alcohol, and maintain a healthy relationship with sleep. Schedule regular doctor visits and consult a nutritionist to make sure that you're getting enough vitamins and nutrients in your busy life, and that you're being the most healthy version of yourself.