The Promethean task of the powerful powerful is to take control of the process, to stop allowing others that ability to limit and mold them. Remake yourself into a character of power. Working on yourself like clay should be one of your greatest and pleasurable life tasks.

The first step in the process of self-creation is self-consciousness-being aware of yourself as an actor and taking control of your appearance and emotions. As Diderot said, the bad actor is the one who is always sincere.

People who wear their hearts on their sleeves out society are tiresome and embarrassing. Their sincerity notwithstanding, it is hard to take them seriously. Those who cry in public may temporarily elicit sympathy, but sympathy soon turns to scorn and irritation at their self-obsessiveness-they are crying to get attention, we feel, and a malicious part of us wants to deny them the satisfaction.

Good actors control themselves better. They can play sincere and heartfelt, can affect a tear and a compassionate look at will, but they don't have to feel it. They externalize emotion in a form that others can understand. Method acting is fatal in the real world.

Create a memorable character that compels attention, that stands out above the other players on the stage. This was the game Abraham Lincoln played. The homespun, common country man, he knew, was a kind of president that America had never had, but would delight in electing. Although many of these qualities came naturally to him, he played them up-the hat and clothes, the beards. (No president before him had worn a beard.)

Lincoln was also the first president to use photographs to spread his image, helping to create the icon of the "homesun president."