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| Saturday, 13-Nov-2010 02:27 |
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Pearl Jewelry - The Story of Pearl Hunters
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As long as pearl jewelry have been known to people, they have been a highly sought commodity for their beauty. It's only in recent times however that the industry has taken the hunt for the perfect pearl to a whole different level. Today, the shiny orbs that we see on in display in jewelry stores have actually almost always been grown in farms.
That's a far cry from the dangerous extraction and collection methods used before the invention of modern technology. In the past, not more than 100 years ago, the only way to retrieve pearls was by diving in lakes, floods and the ocean to pick them up, one at the time. The unfortunate divers who'se job it was to do this, were often poor and lured by the relative large sums they could get. The diver would sometimes have to dive as deep as 100 feet on one single breath of air. In order to preserve air and to stay submerged the longest, the divers would hold on to heavy stones on the way down.
Naturally, this dangerous activity was reserved for the desperate or the powerless - in many cases slaves or extremely poor peasents. Today, this method is all but obsolete in most places of the world. The cheaper cultured pearls have become popular and are many times the only pearls available to the consumer.
There are however still a few isolated areas that practice this old art of pearl diving. Some of the finest natural pearl speciments come from the gulf of Bahrain. Here, divers still risk their health to retrieve what are considered the top of the crop in the world. In fact, Bahrain wants no part of the sale of cultured pearls, banned from trade. Bahrain is one of the few places on earth that does an active job in trying to preserve the natural habitat and waters from pollution.
It's an interesting story and one that continues to fascinate buyers around the world. Somehow, the beauty of the pearl grows when it's been retrieved from the depth of the ocean.
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| Saturday, 13-Nov-2010 02:22 |
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Buying Pearl Jewelry Without Being Ripped Off
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Buying pearl jewelry can be fun, exciting and confusing. Whether you're considering a gift of pearl jewelry for someone special or as a treat for yourself, take some time to learn the terms used in the industry. Here's some information to help you get the best quality pearl jewelry for your money, whether you're shopping in a traditional brick and mortar store or online.
Pearls
Natural or real pearls are made by oysters and other mollusks. Cultured pearls also are grown by mollusks, but with human intervention; that is, an irritant introduced into the shells causes a pearl to grow. Imitation pearls are man-made with glass, plastic, or organic materials.
Because natural pearls are very rare, most pearls used in jewelry are either cultured or imitation pearls. Cultured pearls, because they are made by oysters or mollusks, usually are more expensive than imitation pears. A cultured pearl's value is largely based on its size, usually stated in millimeters, and the quality of its nacre coating, which give it luster. Jewelers should tell your if the pearls are cultured or imitation. Some black, bronze, gold, purple, blue and orange pearls, whether natural or cultured, occur that way in nature; some, however, are dyed through various processes. Jewelers should tell you whether the colored pearls are naturally colored, dyed or irradiated.
Clams, oysters, mussels and many other mollusks with limy shells are known to produce pearls. But very few kinds yield gem pearls of jeweler's quality. The pearl is an abnormal growth of mother-of-pearl, or nacre, imbedded in the soft bodies of these shellfish. It is built up, layer upon layer, in the same way as nacre is added to the lining of the growing shell and always has the same color and luster. For example, over the country, hundreds of good-sized pearls are found each year in the oysters we eat. Unfortunately these have no commercial value regardless of whether they have been cooked or not because they are dull opaque white or purple like the shell of the parent oyster. In recent times almost all pearls of gem quality come from the oriental pearl oyster which has a bright shimmering translucent nacre.
A pearl starts growing when some irritating foreign substance such as a sand grain, bit of mud, parasite or other object becomes lodged in the shell-producing gland called the mantle. Pearls formed in the soft flesh where nacre can be added on all sides are most likely to be spherical and the most highly prized. By far the great majority are flattened or variously distorted and have little value. Size, color, luster and freedom from flaws are other essential qualities. Unlike other gems, such as diamonds, pearls have an average life of only about 50 years. In time the small amount of water in a pearl's make-up is lost and its surface cracks. Because they are mostly lime, necklaces which are worn often are injured by the acid secretions of the human skin.
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| Monday, 8-Nov-2010 02:54 |
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Pearl Jewelry - The Story of Pearl Hunters
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As long as pearl jewelry have been known to people, they have been a
highly sought commodity for their beauty. It's only in recent times
however that the industry has taken the hunt for the perfect pearl to
a whole different level. Today, the shiny orbs that we see on in
display in jewelry stores have actually almost always been grown in
farms.
That's a far cry from the dangerous extraction and collection methods
used before the invention of modern technology. In the past, not more
than 100 years ago, the only way to retrieve pearls was by diving in
lakes, floods and the ocean to pick them up, one at the time. The
unfortunate divers who'se job it was to do this, were often poor and
lured by the relative large sums they could get. The diver would
sometimes have to dive as deep as 100 feet on one single breath of
air. In order to preserve air and to stay submerged the longest, the
divers would hold on to heavy stones on the way down.
Naturally, this dangerous activity was reserved for the desperate or
the powerless - in many cases slaves or extremely poor peasents.
Today, this method is all but obsolete in most places of the world.
The cheaper cultured pearls have become popular and are many times
the only pearls available to the consumer.
There are however still a few isolated areas that practice this old
art of pearl diving. Some of the finest natural pearl speciments come
from the gulf of Bahrain. Here, divers still risk their health to
retrieve what are considered the top of the crop in the world. In
fact, Bahrain wants no part of the sale of cultured pearls, banned
from trade. Bahrain is one of the few places on earth that does an
active job in trying to preserve the natural habitat and waters from
pollution.
It's an interesting story and one that continues to fascinate buyers
around the world. Somehow, the beauty of the pearl grows when it's
been retrieved from the depth of the ocean.
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| Monday, 8-Nov-2010 02:50 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
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Buying Pearl Jewelry Without Being Ripped Off
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Buying pearl jewelry can be fun, exciting and confusing. Whether you're considering a gift of pearl jewelry for someone special or as a treat for yourself, take some time to learn the terms used in the industry. Here's some information to help you get the best quality pearl jewelry for your money, whether you're shopping in a traditional brick and mortar store or online.
Pearls
Natural or real pearls are made by oysters and other mollusks. Cultured pearls also are grown by mollusks, but with human intervention; that is, an irritant introduced into the shells causes a pearl to grow. Imitation pearls are man-made with glass, plastic, or organic materials.
Because natural pearls are very rare, most pearls used in jewelry are either cultured or imitation pearls. Cultured pearls, because they are made by oysters or mollusks, usually are more expensive than imitation pears. A cultured pearl's value is largely based on its size, usually stated in millimeters, and the quality of its nacre coating, which give it luster. Jewelers should tell your if the pearls are cultured or imitation. Some black, bronze, gold, purple, blue and orange pearls, whether natural or cultured, occur that way in nature; some, however, are dyed through various processes. Jewelers should tell you whether the colored pearls are naturally colored, dyed or irradiated.
Clams, oysters, mussels and many other mollusks with limy shells are known to produce pearls. But very few kinds yield gem pearls of jeweler's quality. The pearl is an abnormal growth of mother-of-pearl, or nacre, imbedded in the soft bodies of these shellfish. It is built up, layer upon layer, in the same way as nacre is added to the lining of the growing shell and always has the same color and luster. For example, over the country, hundreds of good-sized pearls are found each year in the oysters we eat. Unfortunately these have no commercial value regardless of whether they have been cooked or not because they are dull opaque white or purple like the shell of the parent oyster. In recent times almost all pearls of gem quality come from the oriental pearl oyster which has a bright shimmering translucent nacre.
A pearl starts growing when some irritating foreign substance such as a sand grain, bit of mud, parasite or other object becomes lodged in the shell-producing gland called the mantle. Pearls formed in the soft flesh where nacre can be added on all sides are most likely to be spherical and the most highly prized. By far the great majority are flattened or variously distorted and have little value. Size, color, luster and freedom from flaws are other essential qualities. Unlike other gems, such as diamonds, pearls have an average life of only about 50 years. In time the small amount of water in a pearl's make-up is lost and its surface cracks. Because they are mostly lime, necklaces which are worn often are injured by the acid secretions of the human skin.
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| Thursday, 29-Oct-2009 07:47 |
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An Easy First Round For Financial Reforms
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WASHINGTON -- This week, congressional Democrats and the U.S. Treasury unveiled the draft of their proposals for financial reform, including a council of regulators and a fund that would actually allow "too big to fail" institutions to fail. But before any votes, the drafts must make it through hearings.
Round one begins on Thursday with a marathon hearing in the House Financial Services Committee. The proposals are likely to freshwater pearl necklace receive mostly supportive treatment.
First on the docket is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner--as architect of the plan, his appearance will be in defense of the none-too-radical proposal. (See "Familiar Flavor to Financial Reform Bill.")
Next up are five regulators. Sheila Bair of the FDIC pushed hard since the start of the summer for a council of regulators to oversee "systemic risks" in the economy. (See "Bair Cautions Banking Crisis Is Not Over.")
Daniel Tarullo, one of the governors of the Federal Reserve, will testify too. The Fed once wanted more responsibility for overseeing those risks, but in testimony earlier this month, Bernanke backed away from taking on too much more power for the Fed. (See "Bernanke Says No Thanks To More Power.")
Also on the docket is John Bowman, the acting director of the Office of Thrift Supervision. Under the current proposal, the Office of Thrift Supervision would be killed off entirely. (With so much banking distress, apparently one regulatory lamb must be slaughtered.)
The third panel will be the most informative, as lobbyists from the financial industry appear before Congress. Representatives of the Financial Services Roundtable, the American Bankers Association, the Managed Funds Association and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association will all testify.
The financial lobby has fiercely opposed the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. They argue that laws to protect consumers already exist and current regulators have the authority they need, and that the CFPA would impose an onerous regulatory burden that pearl jewelry wholesale could restrict the availability of some financial products. Supporters, of course, say that consumers were clearly inadequately protected in the past decade and need a regulator focused directly on that task.
But the lobby is more supportive of the new round of proposals. Scott Talbott, a lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable, says that the industry doesn't object to the Systemic Resolution Fund, which would close massive financial institutions rather than bailing them out. The money for resolutions would come from financial institutions with more than $10 billion in assets (currently around 120 institutions), but because the fees are not assessed until after a failure, Talbott says the industry does not object.
The American Bankers Association also supports the resolution fund and the council of regulators, according to a statement released Wednesday. In its statement, however, the ABA reiterated its opposition to a new consumer protection agency: "Enhanced consumer protection should fix what's broken and not create another layer of federal bureaucracy that consumers will end up paying for."
The proposals are not going totally uncriticized, however. Douglas Elliott of the Brookings Institution fears that the council of regulators will be ineffective. "[Financial bubbles] are invariably quite popular. They arise because a large portion of the population accepts some tenet, such as the inevitability of rising house prices," says Elliott. Imagine if the council had tried to stop the housing bubble in 2005. Instead of averting the Great Recession, they'd be remembered as the regulators who murdered the great wealth-generating housing boom for no reason.
Peter Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute, who will also testify Thursday, has argued that the existing bankruptcy system is superior to wholesale pearl jewelry a resolution authority, which could too easily come to resemble a permanent bailout fund.
But with the support of major financial lobbies, these key provisions of the legislation unveiled only yesterday could easily make it into law. Tomorrow's hearings will say more about where objections lie--for now, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency looks like the most contentious proposal.
Brian Wingfield contributed to this report.
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| Thursday, 29-Oct-2009 07:46 |
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ConocoPhillips Needs Some Clarity
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HOUSTON -- The third quarter was ugly for ConocoPhillips. The company announced this morning that profits fell 71% to $1.5 billion as revenues shed 42% to $41 billion.
Results for the No. 3 U.S. oil giant are expected to
freshwater pearl earrings compare poorly with those coming from bigger rivals Chevron ( CVX - news - people ) and ExxonMobil ( XOM - news - people ) later in the week. That's due largely to Conoco's greater dedication to natural gas and refining. Gas prices bottomed out in the quarter below $3 per million BTU, while the refining business was in the doldrums, socked by weak gasoline demand and historically high inventories of diesel.
Conoco investors are reading the tea leaves for signs of when and how Chief Executive James Mulva will follow through on his plan, announced in early October, to sell $10 billion of assets. Early speculation focused on Conoco jettisoning its 20% stake in Russia's Lukoil. (See: "ConocoPhillips On The Block?")
Last week, however, Lukoil boss Vagit Alekperov reportedly said Mulva had assured him that wasn't in the cards. Mulva also reiterated Conoco's dedication to its assets in the North Sea.
In fact, it's unlikely that Conoco will sell any oilfields. Mulva, in remarks made Oct. 20 at the Oil & Money conference in London, explained his belief that oil supplies will grow ever tighter in the years ahead. The industry, he said, will struggle to boost output from a current 85 million barrels per day to 100 million bpd, and if governments don't make smart policies, the inevitable aftermath will be oil prices soaring anew.
Despite the world's biggest fields slipping into irreversible decline, it's not a question of geology. "The world has ample oil and gas. We can produce it efficiently while protecting the environment. We just need access," he said.
In many resource-rich countries, international oil companies are left out, with governments blocking access to dancing pearl big resources and taking a bigger share of the spoils. Governments are also injecting uncertainty into the energy industry's plans, with climate-change legislation pending in key countries. "Investment flees uncertainty," said Mulva, citing International Energy Agency numbers on upstream oil and gas investments being down $100 billion, or 21%, this year.
"Governments are promoting renewable sources and ignoring oil and gas policy--while overlooking how natural gas could ease the transition to a low-carbon economy," he said, adding that renewable energy can't meet demand, which will continue to grow, especially in the emerging markets. "Flawed policies could lead to new energy price spikes once the world economy recovers.”
Conoco has deferred some projects pending a believable recovery in the price of oil and gas. But if the future pans out as Mulva seems to fear, Conoco would see no benefit in de-leveraging from oil.
This implies that those $10 billion in divestments will come from selling downstream assets, especially refineries. This is easier said than done, as the buyers for refineries are few and dwindling. Valero Energy ( VLO - news - people ), the only refiner with more U.S. capacity than ConocoPhillips, recently shut down its Aruba plant and units at other locations. Sunoco ( SUN - news - people ) mothballed a plant, and other refiners are reducing runs to gemstone necklace limit losses. Yet in the midst of this, Conoco is moving forward with Saudi Aramco on plans to build a brand-new 400,000 bpd refinery at the Saudi port of Yanbu, for a cost of some $10 billion.
So what's it going to be? Selling oil and gas fields would contradict Mulva's view of the future. Selling refineries in the worst refining market in over a decade would ensure a bad price and contradict the rationale for the Saudi investment. Furthermore, Mulva said at the conference that large-scale consolidation in the industry, as occurred in the 1980s and '90s, is unlikely. That implies that asset sales will be piecemeal. Let's just hope that Mulva's not as confused as the rest of us are.
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| Thursday, 29-Oct-2009 07:45 |
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The Return Of Growth
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WASHINGTON -- After a four-quarter slide, the recession will likely be declared over on Thursday, when the government is expected to announce that the gross domestic product grew in the third quarter. In a Bloomberg survey, economists estimated the economy grew at a 3.2% pace.
It's a bit soon to declare this a V-shaped recovery--a sharp recession followed by a sharp recovery--but it's a rapid rebound from the lows at the start of the year. Although fragile, there is reason to
gemstone necklace believe the recovery will be lasting too.In the first quarter, the economy shrank at an annualized 6.4% rate, in the second quarter it contracted at a 0.7% rate. GDP is notoriously difficult to predict (the first prediction is subsequently revised multiple times), but a positive quarter seems almost assured. "So far this is a V-shaped recovery," says William Dunkelberg, the chief economist of the National Federation of Independent Business, though he cautions a relapse is all too possible.
The past four quarters made up the longest streak of GDP declines since quarterly record-keeping began after World War II.
The GDP is a fairly simple calculation--the total of consumption, investment and government spending, minus the trade deficit.
Here's what we know: Consumption has increased. The government's Cash for Clunkers created a huge boost in automobile sales. Though temporary, this boost should keep the consumption component of GDP in positive territory. The boost to car sales in August was temporary (by design), but aside from cars, retail sales continued to grow in September. Excluding autos, sales increased 0.5% in September, according to the Census Bureau, suggesting that stimulus is coinciding with genuine underlying improvement.
One key component of investment--new home construction, has improved from its lows in the second quarter. In April, new home construction was running at a rate of only 479,000 units a year--the lowest level on record, and impossibly low for a country with a population expanding at a rate of more than 2 million people a year. By September, the rate had increased to 590,000 units a year. That's one big upward tug for investment. The investment levels will also improve as businesses restock their shelves. Consumers have crawled into their shells a bit, but have not disappeared altogether.
Finally, with stimulus accelerating, government spending could provide a boost. Although a lot of stimulus spending has gone to dancing pearl slow the pace of cuts for state and local governments, the money is finally trickling out into projects. In July and August the stimulus was responsible for $19 billion in tax relief and almost $50 billion in spending. Much of that spending has been for entitlements, but a total of $47 billion has now gone out in contracts, grants and loans.
Economists who are concerned about the prospects for continued growth focus on rising unemployment, which cripples consumption. The recovery in home prices could be temporary--Goldman Sachs said this week that after a temporary blip up, home prices could slide another 5%-10% by next year. (See also "Reasons To Remain Wary About Housing.") And when the stimulus ends, the government spending component of the economy will subside. On top of those headwinds, the Federal Reserve may have to raise rates sooner rather than later to prevent inflation.
But Michael Mussa, a former chief economist for the IMF, believes that even with modest assumptions, the recovery could be lasting. Even with consumption restrained, Mussa's bullish forecast says GDP could expand 6.8% between now and the end of 2010. For the year 2010, Mussa projects 4% growth in the U.S.--far more optimistic than the August survey of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, in which forecasters saw only 2.3% growth.
Mussa says investment from businesses could be a big part of recovery. "Business investment in equipment and software did not become bloated during the recent expansion [as it did in 1999 to
freshwater pearl earrings 2000]," Mussa wrote when first explaining his optimistic forecast last month. Even if consumption only climbs slowly from its depressed levels, businesses will have to restock inventories, providing another boost.
If the expansion of GDP lasts (watch Christmas retail sales for an early clue) the unemployment rate will finally start to come down--then, by any definition, the recession will surely be over.
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| Thursday, 29-Oct-2009 07:40 |
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Americans Find A Retirement Haven In Paris
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Sheila Trifari, 68, was an investment banker in Miami before retiring early to Paris. In 2003, 16 years after her move to France, her doctor discovered through routine blood tests that she had multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. Trifari's medical insurance policy, through Swiss Life, paid for her chemotherapy. "Nurses came to my home every week to
freshwater pearl jewlelry give me my chemo. I was stunned," she says.
After the first round of drugs stopped working, Trifari was put on thalidomide and paid $475 for her monthly dose, a quarter of the drug's U.S. cost at the time, she says. (Her brother, still in the U.S., researched it for her.) With her cancer now in remission, Trifari still pays only $3,700 a year for her private medical coverage. Her insurer didn't drop her or double her premium, as a U.S. insurer might have. In France that would be taboo.
When you reach a certain age, good health care, safety and security, decent public transportation and a minimum of day-to-day hassles all become crucial to your quality of life. Even something as mundane as the availability of convenient flights to see the grandkids can make the difference between a retirement haven and a lonely hell.
That's why it pays to be skeptical of marketing claims that you can "Retire in Paradise on $30 a Day" and of Web sites featuring locales only a 28-year-old Marine might realistically consider. One site gushes: "Retirement in Brazil is another great choice. … Many find that the country is welcoming, interesting and even exciting." Perhaps a little too exciting. Brazil's murder rate is four times that of the U.S.
Costa Rica is a mainstay of haven lists. Yet this tropical paradise also has its share of violent crime and, as this magazine reported (Oct. 22, 2008), land title scams. The immigration office is a mess, and it's next to impossible to get a landline phone in a reasonable time. Control of the government in neighboring Honduras, also a much-touted retirement haven, is a toss-up between a deposed president trying to pull off a constitutional putsch and some rivals who insist they are the true heirs to the constitution.
Even Mexico, where a million or so Americans reside, should stay off your short list for now, unless you are heading south to be with family. In Monterrey, a lovely city in the mountains of northern Mexico, it's not uncommon to
wholesale pearl jewelry see a group of Mexican teenagers, out on a Friday night, followed by a Ford pickup filled with their armed bodyguards. In many cities the cops take payoffs from the drug cartels. This past summer the Mexican army hauled off at gunpoint a huge swath of the Monterrey police force.
Not every American can afford Paris. But more than cost should go into determining the best place to hang a hammock.
Health care is probably the biggest factor. "Some of these supposed retirement havens are really not the type of places you want to go to as a senior with chronic health conditions," warns Brendan Sharkey, vice president of individual policies at HTH Worldwide, a specialist in overseas medical coverage. There are myriad other, less obvious issues.
Vietnam and Bulgaria are often touted as cheap retirement options. If you move to either place, however, you may have to get in line at the U.S. embassy every month to receive your Social Security check. That's because U.S. law prohibits the Social Security Administration from sending payments directly to residents of those countries. Wire transferring the $1,160 average monthly Social Security payment from a U.S. bank account to a foreign one could eat up as much as 11% of it in bank and foreign exchange fees. There is a way of using a PayPal account in the U.S. to cut those fees in half, but you've got to be a Web whiz to figure it out.
Such hidden hassles prompted FORBES to pearl jewelry wholesale create its own list of ten top countries for Americans retiring abroad. We considered costs, safety, medical care, ease of obtaining a visa, political stability, public transportation and availability of flights home. The winners: Austria, Thailand, Italy, Panama, Ireland, Australia, France, Malaysia, Spain and Canada.
Australia ranks high on comfort issues, but its "investment retirement visa" requires that an immigrant have at least $56,000 in annual income ($43,000 if you settle in a rural area) and be prepared to invest a minimum of $650,000 locally ($430,000 in a rural location). In contrast, countries like Panama (a safe Central American nation with generous discounts for the retired) and Thailand (a growing international hub for good-quality but affordable private hospitals) are attractive to the budget-conscious. Thailand's "O" visa is available to any American retiree with at least $24,000 in the bank and a minimum of $1,935 in monthly income.
Switzerland, Singapore and New Zealand are not on our list because they want only the hyperwealthy, worker-bees or entrepreneurs, not middle-market retirees. "Switzerland is very effective at keeping people out," notes Kathleen de Carbuccia, President of the Association of Americans Resident Overseas. Britain--a traditional base for American expats--didn't make our list because after decades of enlightened tax policies, it has reversed course.
Our advice: Drill deep into each country and base your decision on both your own priorities and your own finances. You'll be surprised. France, for example, might be a red-tape nightmare for an entrepreneur, but it's pretty sweet for a retired coupon-clipping American.
Donald Johnson and his wife, Mary, are retired Americans living in Paris. "We've got our money tied up in a Merrill Lynch account in the U.S. We don't have any investments here in France," says the 80-year-old Johnson. The couple transfer funds from Merrill Lynch into a French bank account when they need them.
There's a good reason for this. Greg A. Smith, partner at Smith Carmichael Associés in Paris, says a U.S.-French double taxation treaty exempts an American residing in France from French taxes on passive income earned on U.S.-source investments. That includes all U.S.-paid pensions, including Social Security. "The treaty is very favorable for American retirees in France," says Smith.
But caution: France is less attractive for the most affluent. After five full years in France, American residents can get socked with a wealth tax on "net worldwide assets"--an annual levy that starts at 0.55% on wealth above $1.2 million and rises to
freshwater pearl necklace 1.8% above $24 million. That's besides getting sucked into France's nightmarish inheritance laws and death taxes.
But for the retiree with a taste for the French apple brandy, Calvados, there's even an answer for this. Paris attorney Samuel Okoshken advises affluent retirees to ring-fence their assets with a discretionary, irrevocable American trust. French courts have kept such trusts out of the grasp of French tax authorities. But do it all before moving to France. "If you set it up just before the five years are up, it will look transparent," he says.
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| Thursday, 29-Oct-2009 07:36 |
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How To Amp Up Your Charisma
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Ever felt half-present in a conversation because inside you were drowning in self-doubt?
You may think those dark thoughts are playing out inside your head, but they're also splashed across your face. At best, the person you're talking to has a gut feeling that something's off. At worst, those micro-expressions--the small fissures rippling across your forehead, around your cheeks and near your mouth--may lead her to think you are reacting to something she said, when in fact your mind is working over a completely unrelated conflict.
Self-criticism is often called the silent killer of business: So many executives suffer from it, yet few will admit it. In the extreme, self-doubt blooms into an "impostor syndrome"--a condition in which victims feel utterly incompetent and it is just a matter of time before they are exposed as frauds. Michael Uslan, producer of the Batman movies (including the latest blockbuster, The Dark Knight), still gets that feeling occasionally on the set. "I still have this background feeling that one of the security guards might come in and throw me out," he says.
This business killer is also a charisma killer. Those looking to pearl jewelry lead, assure or enchant need charisma to spare--and facial expressions and body language are key ingredients. Research conducted by the MIT Media Lab successfully predicted the outcome of negotiations and business plan pitches with 80% accuracy just by analyzing participants' body language (and completely ignoring words, ideas and arguments). The studies also predicted, with similar accuracy, the success of sales calls by listening only to voice fluctuations, not the words themselves.
You can control a fraction of those millions of subtle signals, but only a fraction. Total control is totally exhausting. A better approach: sidestep the anxiety, thereby controlling those micro-expressions and amplifying your charisma.
One trick is to focus on the source of all your emotions (and their resulting physical manifestations)--that is, your subconscious mind. The nice thing about the subconscious is that it can't distinguish between imagination and reality. That's why your heart pounds during a horror movie: You know it's just a movie, but your brain sees blood and guts on the screen, touching off a rush of adrenaline.
If you can get your subconscious mind to imagine the emotions you want to broadcast, it'll assume those emotions are "for real" and your body language will fall into step. This is what people mean when they say that the best liars are those who actually believe what they're saying, at least for that moment. Actors call this "getting into character"; athletes call it "visualization"--Tiger Woods sees himself hitting yet another amazing golf shot before he takes his backswing.
A healthy dose of gratitude helps too. Desperation, anxiety and worry all well up when we focus on how things should be, but aren't. Gratitude puts you in touch with the things you already have and are happy with, resulting in a wave of confidence that smooths over many a furrowed brow.
Empathy is a third trusted charisma restorative. The connection born of taking others' interests to
pearl jewelry heart doesn't just give you and them a warm feeling; it manifests itself in your overall charismatic presentation.
Remember: Even the most successful, compelling people in the world have bad days and self-doubt. You just can't see it. That's charisma.
Olivia Fox Cabane is a consultant, speaker and leadership coach for companies such as Deloitte, Citigroup and Veracity Worldwide. She has lectured on the topics of influence and persuasion at Harvard, Yale, MIT and the United Nations. She can be reached at olivia@askolivia.com.
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