Why do some individuals -- say, an actor, or singer, or politician -- enjoy great success, even as others with as much (or more) talent do not?
And why do some of the talented, hard-working individuals stay at it for years with little result -- until suddenly their star starts to shine?
You've probably pondered these questions before. I know I have. Here's what you may have concluded: talent, perseverance, but mainly a lot of dumb luck -- that's the "right mix."
How else do you explain how someone with a great voice can spend their life on the road playing small clubs, and is never "discovered"? In contrast, you turn on the TV or radio one day and ask: How did that "singer" manage to sell a million records? Doesn't it seem that only "dumb luck" can account for these apparent "injustices"?
Actually, something more than dumb luck is indeed at work. We at EWI are prepared to offer you a different explanation -- one that's backed up by original research.
Sure, luck does play a role. But suppose you had evidence that stardom or obscurity is not random, but instead reflects a pattern?
"The extreme popularity and unpopularity that some people achieve in society is regulated by social mood."
That's a quote from Robert Prechter's July-August 2010 Elliott Wave Theorist study, "Social Mood Regulates the Popularity of Stars. Case in Point: The Beatles." Here's another:
"When the public finds individuals or ensembles (such as sports teams or musical groups) upon whom they can project their positive or negative feelings, those people become public figures.
"The public does not choose such individuals entirely by chance. They have characteristics that allow people to project their feelings onto them. People who become popular representatives of positive social mood might be intelligent, lovable, talented, clever, funny, urbane, handsome, beautiful or sexually attractive, or have several of these traits. People who become popular representatives of negative social mood might be intelligent, provocative, driven, rebellious, daring, harsh, arrogant, melancholy, comforting or vulnerable. Fame rarely lights on just anyone.
"One can link the fortunes of dozens of stars to social mood trends. Whether the individual is Carol Burnett, Bill Clinton, Perry Como, Bill Cosby, Miley Cyrus, John Edwards, Herbert Hoover, Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, Marilyn Monroe, Richard Nixon, Elvis Presley, Ronald Reagan, Franklin Roosevelt, Shakespeare, Frank Sinatra, Britney Spears, John Travolta, John Wayne or any other such public personality, one can observe the waves of social mood shaping stars’ periods of success and failure. The ultimate star-maker is the public, and how the public feels determines how it views, and treats, its stars."
Prechter's 2010 Beatles study included copious charts and data to show how the band's success and failures fit into a pattern when plotted on a chart of the stock market. (The stock market is the best measure of social mood; read Prechter's "Wave Principle of Human Social Behavior" for more.) The Beatles were bull market stars, as their message of love found the greatest public acceptance when social mood (stock market) was rising.
Now, EWI's Peter Kendall presents an extended new study in the December 2011 Elliott Wave Theorist, which picks up where Prechter's 2010 Beatles study left off. It explores perhaps the greatest figure of 20th century American music, namely Frank Sinatra.
With his own charts and careful research, Kendall shows you how the highs and the lows of Sinatra's career also lined up with the public's social mood, as reflected by the stock market at the time.
The new Theorist presents a practical lesson for any public figure. To achieve (or keep) success, you have to know what type of star you are -- "bull market" or "bear market" -- and push harder when your time arrives. The public is "the ultimate star-maker," so success is much more than dumb luck. It's the ability to anticipate the trends and turns in public mood -- and then cater to it.
The December 2011 Elliott Wave Theorist explains more. Read the special, 22-page issue online now, risk-free >>