Be inspired by the Cinderella
Story, #10 Year Challenge to
Embrace Erotic Capital
Five years ago, this column highlighted
the issue of erotic capital which sounds
stupid until you consider the facts. We
bring it back at this time of Big 4 Agenda
and #10 year challenge to inspire our
readers to bring their sexy back because
we have evidence that it pays.
For starters the #10yearchallenge has
been a trending topic as various people
and celebrities posted on social media
their photos comparing how they looked
ten years ago and their fabulous look
now. If you haven’t participated in the
challenge, it would help to visualize the
metamorphosis you have undergone in the
last 10 years.
The Big 4 agenda is the Kenyan
government agenda in the next 5 year
planning period towards achieving the
vision 2030. The four agendas are, Food
Security,
Manufacturing,
Universal
Healthcare and Affordable Housing.
The most important point here is that
whatever you focus on grows. Since the
government does better planning than
most entities it is a good source of best
practice, so what’s your vision 2030? How
will you be looking 10 years from now?
What is your big 4 agenda? We propose
that you consider erotic capital as one of
your focus areas for personal development.
The Cinderella story demonstrates how
society has always unsuccessfully tried to
suppress the importance of erotic capital;
Cinderella won the prince’s heart through
this capital. The bureaucrats at the
monarchy would not allow the prince to
relate with the lower class but the prince
stuck to the glass slipper as his only link
to her heart’s wishes. This story explains
the maverick and wild card effect of erotic
capital that cannot be directly linked to
the other types of capital.
Erotic Capital: 7 Years of
Bad Sex Myth and Why
Attractiveness Is the Key to
Success
One of the best reference sources for this
is the book titled, “Honey Money, Why
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MAL28/19 ISSUE
Attractiveness is the key to success. The
author of the book Catherine Hakim
writes about the various personal assets
we can leverage on to succeed. One is
economic capital which is represented by
money, what it can buy and other cash
equivalent valuables. Those who doubt
about the power of money should be
reminded of the saying, “the person who
said money cannot buy happiness didn’t
know where to shop”.
The other one is about human or
intellectual capital which is based
on modern day meritocracy whereby
experience, knowledge, education and
other competences are highly valued.
There is also the social capital where
“technical know who” is indeed a serious
personal asset.
Catherine suggests erotic capital as a fourth
personal asset which is normally ignored
although there are regular reminders of
its importance. It combines beauty, sex
appeal, liveliness, good dress sense, charm
and social skills. There is a joke that if you
fail to maintain eye contact when cheering
on a drink, you risk getting 7 years of bad
sex.
This is mainly used to demonstrate the
high cost of poor social skills which is
one of the components of erotic capital.
The author also argues that better looking
musicians may leverage on this capital to
increase their earning potential.
Looking good can give you a double
digit percent advantage in accessing
opportunities in life and in any profession.
Since part of it is inborn, research shows
that investing in your looks is what
increases your chances to get further in
life. It applies to both men and women
with some cases favoring men while
others favor women. In 2019 and beyond
purpose to spend more time in front of the
mirror, have a good stylist, hit the gym,
eat well, manage your weight, polish your
social skills because it pays. Remember, in
Erotic capital the winner takes all.
Employment studies have found what we
can term as a beauty premium or penalty
with more attractive people earning
significantly more than those who are
less attractive. What is surprising from
the statistics is that the ‘beauty premium’
has been found to be higher in men than
women across the various professions.
This should encourage the male folks to
invest in looks and not to just look at it as
a feminine thing.
Trends Fuelled by
Mainstreaming of Erotic
Capital
In the recent past this column has been
highlighting related trends as they
become evident. One of those trends is the
acknowledgement of “Sponsor-stitution”
by the corporate sector. Corporates
have validated the blessors or sponsors
segment with targeted products. In Asia
we mentioned the emergence of what they
call concubine wives.
These are college girls who are willing
to be second ‘wife’ to older men who can
guarantee them a comfortable life and
pay their college fees. The slay queens
have been trending with their ingenious
ways of getting what they want by faking
it until they make it, we have attempted
to demonstrate how anyone can slay into
success where erotic capital is leveraged to
the last coin.
As the saying goes, what is good for the
goose is good for the gander. The woman
eaters are here with us, the slay kings or
the male version of slay queens. As the
Kenyan constitution entrenches gender
mainstreaming to include at least 30% of
either sex in institutions the men are keen
to claim their 30% of the slaying economy.
Leverage is the art of maximizing what
you’ve got, what is God given or what
your mama gave to you. As the experience
The woman eaters
are here with us,
the slay kings or the
male version of slay
queens. As the Ken-
yan constitution
entrenches
gen-
der mainstreaming
to include at least
30% of either sex
in institutions the
men are keen to
claim their 30% of
the slaying econo-
my. Leverage is the
art of maximizing
what you’ve got,
what is God given
or what your mama
gave to you. As the
experience or access
economy expands,
there is less shame
in shaking what
you’ve got even if
it is just for experi-
ence sake.
or access economy expands, there is less
shame in shaking what you’ve got even if
it is just for experience sake.
The Benefits of Not Giving
a F**k are Beneficial
Lastly, if there is one skill that can help
you to stop beating yourself for your
shortcomings its learning how not to give
a F**k. In this era of open offices and social
media everyone flexes their best self; you
may think that you have the worst life
among your peers. Consider, the #10 year
challenge, maybe the sun has really beaten
you up in the last 10 years, this can be very
worrying as no one is posting their beaten
up selfies on Twitter, how about you not
giving a F**k about it?.
This is about appreciating your situation
regardless of how bad it is. Emerging
wisdom suggests that we should read
more stories about people who failed than
those who are successful in order to get
lessons of avoiding failure or better still
failing successfully.
This is well illustrated in the book, The
Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, A
Counterintuitive Approach To Living a
Good Life. In this book the author, Mark
Manson illustrates clearly how life can be
good if losers accepted they are losers and
moved on instead of whining all the time.
Wealth literature also indicates that you
can never be rich if you consider yourself
to be unlucky. Mason, tells a compelling
story of a man whose writings were
rejected many times by publishers until
one of them gave him a chance, he wrote
about himself as a successful failure, the
book was a hit. While it is good to focus
on the positives, that becomes a negative
when there is nothing much to write home
about. By accepting who you are however
bad your situation the positives emerge.
One of the most successful advertisements
by VW was the Beetle ad with the
headline, Ugly. When you admit a negative
the market gives you the positives, in the
Beetle the strengths such as durability,
practical, low maintenance emerged as its
immutable strengths.
By market here you have to include
yourself because of self-talk which is one
of the most impactful motivation speeches
you will ever listen to. As stupid as it
sounds go ahead and turn your problems
upside down because there you might just
find the diamond in the rough.
Boniface Ngahu is a seasoned
marketing research expert and
runs the Talking Point column in
Marketing Africa magazine. He
is the Marketing Director of SBO
Research. You can commune with
him on this or related matters via
email at: BNgahu@sboresearch.
co.ke, or follow him on Twitter @
bngahu