Step 1 to Becoming President

So, you want to be President one day? Great! But there is a very important first step to help you get there.

Step 1 – You’ve got to be great at remembering names.  Okay, so really step one is you have to be a citizen of the United States.  But after that, the most important thing you can do is remember the names of all the people you meet. A wise person once said: “To recall a voter’s name is statesmanship. To forget it is oblivion.”  Let’s take a quick look at history.  Do the names Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bill Clinton and Abraham Lincoln mean anything to you? At the very least, you should recognize Abraham Lincoln as the guy on the penny.  You’ve got to be pretty important in order to be on national currency.

So, besides being great leaders, what is one thing that these three guys have in common? They were all great at remembering names. All three of these presidents were able to make personal and meaningful connections with their voter base, with fellow leaders, and with the men and women that served under them by remembering their names and addressing them personally.

There’s a great story about Roosevelt going to special efforts to find and personally thank, by name, the mechanic who helped deliver him a specialized car that accommodated his paralysis. It’s clear that as president, FDR was a busy man, but he was never too busy to learn someone’s name.  The investment that Franklin D. Roosevelt made to all of his countrymen by valuing the importance of their name is one of the things that made him a great President.

What about Bill Clinton?  Put the scandal and the perjury aside for a minute – Clinton left office with the highest end of office approval rating of any President since World War II. How could a guy who embarrassed himself so royally with the whole oval office intern affair still be so popular? Because he remembered everyone’s name! Whenever Clinton interacted with someone he made a point of physically touching him or her in some way, (get your mind out of the gutter, a clean way – handshake, hand on shoulder etc) he held eye contact, and he always addressed them by name.  It only took one meeting for him to remember someone’s name.  And he made sure that the next time he saw that person, he used their name again.

And Abraham Lincoln? Lincoln was one of the earliest advocates for Human Rights. It is said that Lincoln valued the importance of a person’s name as an integral part of their sense of self-identity.  In Lincoln’s effort to carefully remember peoples names, he showed them that he also valued them.

90% of people surveyed say that they feel more respected and motivated when someone remembers their name.  A persons name is an extremely important part of our self-identity.  It’s who we are.  When you remember a person’s name a sense of familiarity and connection is formed.  It’s an immediate sign to the person that you value them and see them as important.

Have you ever had someone forget your name? It’s a pretty deflating feeling when they do.  When you are campaigning to be President, you’re going to meet thousands and thousands of people – donors, other politicians, grandparents, teachers, little league baseball teams, girl scout troops – all sorts of people will cross your path, people whose votes you need!  The more names you can remember equals the more people who believe in (and like) you.

So you want to be President one day? Namerick will help you get it done.