Few people reach the vaulted heights of becoming a legend, either during their lifetime or after it. Those who do are privileged with fame, praise and a ceaseless retelling of the story that made their life into a myth. While it's a difficult position to secure there are a few things you can do to help yourself along.
Instructions
1. Find an area or activity that you can distinguish yourself in, whether it's athletics, politics, academics or any other form of human activity that you feeling some calling for. If you don't feel a particular calling for anything then start to think about what resources you have available to you.
2. Find a mentor who can teach you the ropes, introduce you to important contacts and shed a little bit of residual prestige your way. Work with your mentor as long and often as possible and generally accept the methods you're taught.
3. Split with your mentor and his or her teaching tradition towards the end of the mentor's career or life. Begin to make controversial, public and sometimes incendiary comments that newspapers pick up on so that some writers begin to suggest you're proposing a new method for what you're doing.
4. Formulate your new approach to your activity in a pamphlet, book or demonstration. Use your text to attract students and disciples who can help you with your myth making task.
5. Identify an arch-enemy of yours who will become the second most important figure in your personal myth. Make your enemy out to seem like a big threat to your chosen field (or to the world) and position yourself as a self-sacrificing do-gooder who feels obligated to fight your enemy.
6. Continue to wage the battle and find new enemies when the old ones submit. Soon after your first victory write an autobiography that hints at your being a legend but never actually says it. Instead, focus on the mythic quality of your struggle.
7. Ensure that your students continue to craft the myth of your legend after you're finished doing so. Try to engender a sense of awe in them as they begin to re-remember you.
