BY Dylan Jones 20 May 2009 (disclaimer *extract from G.Q.com)
If you were to look at the dozens of men's magazines that launched in the Nineties, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Alpha Male had - perhaps unwittingly, perhaps willingly - had some sort of frontal lobotomy. Ten years ago you couldn't be a man unless everything you consumed, everything you appreciated, everything you read, watched and listened to came complete with its own inverted commas. Big yellow foam inverted commas that proved you didn't take things too seriously.
Back in the Nineties, everything was ironic.
Ten years ago the Alpha Male was reduced to being interested only in gadgets, girls and beer. To be aspirational, to want to achieve in life was somehow considered to be uncool. You had to read a lads' magazine and you had to drink beer straight from the bottle and you had to pretend to be a new lad and you had to treat everything as a joke.
Yuppies were considered to be too Eighties, too associated with the Thatcher era, too associated with the good life. To lust after the better things in life - to learn languages, earn proper money, drive better cars and seduce more attractive, better educated women - you had to do it ironically, as though you didn't really care.
I wrote a piece about them at the time - the Untuckables, I called them, the sort of men who wandered around with a bottle of imported Belgian beer in one hand and a copy of Trouser Snake in the other. They were the reductive, unacceptable face of the new man.
Of course they're still here, but thankfully they are no longer part of the Zeitgeist.
At GQ, we've always attracted the Alpha Man. In fact we've never been embarrassed about being called aspirational. Never been embarrassed about being called yuppies in fact. Make no bones about it - GQ, the magazine I am the proud custodian of, is aimed at 21st-century yuppies. Men who are proud to call themselves Alpha Males.
So what does it mean to be an Alpha these days? Who are the Alpha role models? Who should we be emulating? Who should we be inviting round to our big, fat fancy bachelor pads? Well, the Alpha role models tend to be men with good credentials, men who excel at their professions, and men who look, sound and act like James Bond. In fact men who actually ARE James Bond. The Alpha male is devoted to success, devoted to self-improvement, and has a fundamental understanding of quality. And if he doesn't, he wants to find out how he can learn.
The crucial thing about the modern Alpha Male is the way in which he's become more sophisticated as a consumer. And this is because he's become more feminised. He isn't a metrosexual - I think that term was always more applicable to New York than anywhere in Britain - but he's become obsessed by luxury in all its many forms. Men have traditionally been a lot less sophisticated than women when it comes to consuming, especially at the top end of the market, and it's only recently that men - even Alpha men - have become acclimatised.
If, in the Eighties, the word designer became everyone's favourite prefix - used as a descriptive definition of everything from cars, suits and supermodels to personal organisers, lettuce and kitchen fittings - the new prefix is luxury, and it's one men have embraced with a newfound enthusiasm.
Believe me, Alpha Men are not just shallow consumers - they all strive for the best in everything - but we've learnt that to display our Alpha qualities, we can't just buy a fancy suit and drive a flash car. Alpha Man is becoming more adept at understanding the importance of provenance, of quality, and of true luxury.
But however sophisticated the Alpha Male becomes, however knowledgeable he becomes of the upper echelons of luxury consumption, he still needs validation, still needs confirmation that his consumer choices are the right ones to have, the right ones to make. Alpha Man still needs his friends to tell him he's cool, still needs a magazine or a newspaper to define him.
In many ways I think we've always been like this, but increasingly we need to know that the things we're buying, the things we're surrounding ourselves with are CORRECT. Have I bought the right suit? Am I driving the right car? Is my Blu-Ray the best on the market? What if I wait a few months? What digital camera should I buy?
Alpha male? You've found a home.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
What CareerOne thinks of Kevin Zhang
These style individuals are generally hard headed realists, astute and financially ambitious, with the capacity to exercise a great deal of self direction and self-discipline, enabling them to channel their energies constructively and conduct themselves in whatever way they feel is most appropriate for a given situation. Whilst they are focussed on financial gain, and are astute in identifying opportunities that others may have missed, they will usually operate within the stated legal or ethical requirements of their role.
The primary motivation of these people is the acquisition of wealth and possessions, both increasing life's comforts and providing tangible evidence of their success. They are also keen to ensure that their work, and indeed their general approach to life, is stream-lined and constructive, and they generally relish opportunities for calculated risk taking.
These individuals tend to work for the purpose of material reward, rather than, for instance, out of loyalty or duty. Therefore, pressure develops for them if they are in a work role where the salary system is not structured to reward better than average results. They will actively seek packages appropriate to their entrepreneurial outlook and, under pressure, their tendency is to relate everything to fundamental money or cost factors.
Stress is also often related to having to tolerate seeing other people with higher benefits, particularly if the way is blocked for them to achieve those things themselves but, applying their sound level of self-management, they will work constructively to attain their goals. However, under continuing pressure, their frustration may lead them into greater risk taking and poor judgement. They are unlikely to remain in a difficult position if they feel the struggle is not worth the return, being willing, for example, to seek job opportunities in another organisation if they feel too constrained where they are.
They believe in reward for effort and, for them to be happy, their work situation must have good conditions, and they will work extremely hard where the motivators and reward systems mentioned above are in place. They tend always to look for the "easy" way to do things. This is by no means a bad thing, since it can lead to new thinking and new ideas, but they also need to be careful with how they apply this ability, and often benefit from collaborating with others before carrying out new plans.
Their work situation needs to be structured so that results and rewards are not too far into the future. If a long-term situation is unavoidable, it is important, for maintaining their enthusiasm, that there be a clear indication of how current work contributes to long term rewards.
Whilst not intuitively aware of other people's reactions, they can employ strategies to "read" the behaviour of clients or associates, and they are well able to utilise their findings to advantage. They will deliberately adapt their style to suit the situation, as they perceive it. From eloquent to colloquial and down to earth, they are generally able to adjust their style appropriately. They usually have most respect for people who are able to "outsmart them" or who demonstrate real firmness of purpose and authority, and they can be easily irritated by people who are not calm and sure of their facts.
These people often enjoy social activities that have a purpose, with the promise of tangible gain. Their hobbies can often be activities that others would not consider to be leisure pursuits, such as stock market trading or running their own small business. They tend to have a large number of friends, but few if any close friends.
Summary and recommended professions
This temperament style is a money motivated risk taker, but prefers a calculated approach, in an environment where they feel they have some control over the odds attached to the risk, or get paid to assess risk for others. Jobs that suit them would therefore include:
Professional: Entrepreneur; Property Valuer; Appraiser; Financial Advisor; Self-Employed Businessman; Banker
Skilled: Professional Gambler; Valuer; Jeweller; Bookmakers Assistant
The primary motivation of these people is the acquisition of wealth and possessions, both increasing life's comforts and providing tangible evidence of their success. They are also keen to ensure that their work, and indeed their general approach to life, is stream-lined and constructive, and they generally relish opportunities for calculated risk taking.
These individuals tend to work for the purpose of material reward, rather than, for instance, out of loyalty or duty. Therefore, pressure develops for them if they are in a work role where the salary system is not structured to reward better than average results. They will actively seek packages appropriate to their entrepreneurial outlook and, under pressure, their tendency is to relate everything to fundamental money or cost factors.
Stress is also often related to having to tolerate seeing other people with higher benefits, particularly if the way is blocked for them to achieve those things themselves but, applying their sound level of self-management, they will work constructively to attain their goals. However, under continuing pressure, their frustration may lead them into greater risk taking and poor judgement. They are unlikely to remain in a difficult position if they feel the struggle is not worth the return, being willing, for example, to seek job opportunities in another organisation if they feel too constrained where they are.
They believe in reward for effort and, for them to be happy, their work situation must have good conditions, and they will work extremely hard where the motivators and reward systems mentioned above are in place. They tend always to look for the "easy" way to do things. This is by no means a bad thing, since it can lead to new thinking and new ideas, but they also need to be careful with how they apply this ability, and often benefit from collaborating with others before carrying out new plans.
Their work situation needs to be structured so that results and rewards are not too far into the future. If a long-term situation is unavoidable, it is important, for maintaining their enthusiasm, that there be a clear indication of how current work contributes to long term rewards.
Whilst not intuitively aware of other people's reactions, they can employ strategies to "read" the behaviour of clients or associates, and they are well able to utilise their findings to advantage. They will deliberately adapt their style to suit the situation, as they perceive it. From eloquent to colloquial and down to earth, they are generally able to adjust their style appropriately. They usually have most respect for people who are able to "outsmart them" or who demonstrate real firmness of purpose and authority, and they can be easily irritated by people who are not calm and sure of their facts.
These people often enjoy social activities that have a purpose, with the promise of tangible gain. Their hobbies can often be activities that others would not consider to be leisure pursuits, such as stock market trading or running their own small business. They tend to have a large number of friends, but few if any close friends.
Summary and recommended professions
This temperament style is a money motivated risk taker, but prefers a calculated approach, in an environment where they feel they have some control over the odds attached to the risk, or get paid to assess risk for others. Jobs that suit them would therefore include:
Professional: Entrepreneur; Property Valuer; Appraiser; Financial Advisor; Self-Employed Businessman; Banker
Skilled: Professional Gambler; Valuer; Jeweller; Bookmakers Assistant
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Samurai
From Geisha to Samurai...perfectly normal...both Jap (therefore justified)
Some people might notice I didn't blog for 9mths until the recent post 'Refracted Reflections'. Well. Sometime in between that post and the one prior I decided the blog was too boring and decided to do some interior designing/renovations. Result...definitely more personal. Part of the changes was removing the old background music and so I decided to make a new one...
My discovery took me on a journey through iTunes and I stumbled across my old OSTs from various movies. (gotta love Hans Zimmer)
I was tempted to chose "arrival to Earth" from Transformers but I thought that would be a bit excessive.
If it wasn't Transformers it could only be one other...The Last Samurai...
duhhh..can't you see the resemblance between robots and samurai!?
Anyway...
What I really intended was to link this post to 'Leavetakings', to try and give myself some peace of mind. Uninvited my mind drifted off to the word (pictured above) (which in Jap stands for Samurai) meaning..."To Serve" and it reminded me of Joshua 24:15b
"But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
and so...I'm completely at ease...wherever I am, whatever I do, I still serve.
/joy
oh yea...the score that lead to all this>>> Red Warrior- Hans Zimmer (posted below)
Memoir of a Geisha
(On a side note, I've chosen a set structure
for my blog...I hope its obvious...
but we'll h
ave to wait and see)The other day on msn, a friend remarked after I 'revealed' my blog...
'I guess people do get quite personal in their blogs'...
which made me think...have I been too personal? I guess the last post about refractions/rarefactions/quantum tunneling atoms [part1] did mention names... (oh wait, I still have to do part 2)...and the recent post on leaving was kinda...eehh [shrugs shoulders].
ok...so this one will hopefully be a less melancholic read.
So I was at work...(good start) one Friday afternoon at around the time when all productivity ceases...2.11pm to be exact. Yes ppl. Email me at 2.11pm for instant response.
So the clever scheming Kevstar I am, took a file and went out for some 'attendance'. At around the bottom of the Hitachi building this barrister kind of...trodded...out the lift with his tie half undone. Usually this meant 'hey everyone my weeks over!'. He (MJH) looked about as surprised to see me (KHZ) as I was to see him...
MJH: shit...Fred must've sent him to pick up those Reply/s which I haven't done...
KHZ: shit...he's gonna mention with that loudmouth of his to Fred that I was killing time bumming in the city...
So it turned into a very interesting conversation indeed. It went along the lines of...
[banta] [banta] [slovakian swear word] [banta] [banta] [slovakian curse] [banta]
(yes this particular Counsel is Slovakian)
...so what kind of stuff does Fred get you doing nowadays?
bla bla bla [statement of claim]
bla bla bla [s22 response]
bla bla bla [this and that]
...yea so you're basically Fred's whore...
... ...
... ...
... ...
(-_- ok...I know who I ain't instructing in the future)
...well no I don't work that hard, usually not that committed also...how bout we lower the bar a notch...say...a geisha?
I walked away very content with myself for that witty response...
That convo aside...he's not too bad...other recent convo involving him:
me: this client can be ...u know...bit of a dickhead at times...
him: don't worry, you just have to be in control
[enter client]
(conference)
[exunt client]
him: gee, that guy's a dickhead!
me: mmm
him: advice...settle early...
me: agreed.
/out
P.S. At 2.11pm even photographing your office with your mobile is more fun than...work
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