I Will Now Read Your Mind

Let’s try a little experiment. I want you to think of one successful person. It can be anyone, famous or family member. Make sure you have just the one successful person in mind. Now concentrate on the first letter of that person’s last name.

Good. I’ll do the rest.

I will now wrinkle my brow and focus all my powers of ESP, trying to discern whether the letter in your mind is in the first half of the alphabet or the second half. Excuse me while I chant…ooom…oooom…okay.

Your letter is in the first half of the alphabet.

How’d I do? Leave a comment with the last name of the person you had in mind.

Then read this interesting article to see why I thought this might work.

http://www.richardwiseman.com/quirkology/surname.html

Comments

[rachel]

i picked corwin bleu

[rachel]

i picked corwin bleu

[Tarah]

i pick beyonce knowles

[shelby]

Bill Gates...nice logic

[no name needed]

I picked Adam sander because he seems very successful in
his career as an actor and I think he could finish his career with a lot of ££££ if you know what I mean.He seems
very interested in his work and makes acting look like
reality.

[Jessica Simpson]

Hey...I was thinking of kelli simpson!

[Moff]

Scott Adams. You loser! You bested me!

[Ed]

I chose Penn Jilette. Reason? He seemed to be a low-level comedian (when I was young) with a hook on magic tricks. Yet he achieved a popular stance that almost everyone in my cultural (and locational) distinction (at least that I know) would recognize him (and Teller). It seems that people going through an employee list will do so alphabetically, as thats how most documents (In English) are printed. So surely, managers who go through such documents deciding who are the echelon of good employees probably read through them top to bottom; left to right; (as our culture dictates) and by the latter half of the alphabet become more and more critical of those they have not judged (with respect to those they have), and generally don't re-estimate in the context they might have, were the latter employees in the first half of the list.
I wonder what statistics might say about the difference in their evaluations from A's to B's, B's to C's, C's to D's, etc. etc. might say about the degree of change between each letter. I'd wager its a gradual decline.
Further of mention is that the latter half of the alphabet has more letters that are less commonly used. Q, V, Y, Z, X, are all in the latter half of the alphabet. Sure, vowel starting words share the same discrimination, but they are lesser in number, and A, E, and I, are among the most commonly used letters in the alphabet (taken on observation rather than any scientific data (though E is the most numerous and least plentiful letter on the scrabble board!))
Though, it is also true that if I choose a name (to increase my public persona) that easily rolls off the tongue, rather than gets deluded by the many aggressive sounds, K's, S's, and CH sounds, I'd be more acceptable to (not only those who cant pronounce it) but also find it simply sounds nice (definitely a statistic that cannot be refuted, people's expectations generally predict (but not always)) their reaction.
Also to be noted, if I was going through a list, say on Wikipedea, of "Famous Americans" (just for the sake of argument), of course I'd read about Scott Adams, but likely lose interest and start reading something else by the time I got to Bill Waterson. (I don't believe I have ADHD, though I feel that statement might make some argue that point).

Whole point of this response is, Yes, having your name in the first half of the alphabet may (and probably does) promote occupational 'success'. Here are some possible explanations at a supposed anomaly.

[1991 arctic cat snowmobile]

Home schooling provides a better education, is worse for your child

[Jake]

Will Smith. Uh oh.

[bagged candy cotton]

O governo estuda a proposta de criacao da idade minima de 67 anos para homens e mulheres se aposentarem pelo INSS

[Faye Evans]

omg
Eliza Flemming

[poop]

that was soooo not the letter. i was thinking robin rihanna fenty, aka rihanna. so you were wrong!

[James Willson]

You won - Lance Armstrong.
If only people knew about this 100 years ago. We could have saved Robert Scott's life - "Up against Amundsen, no chance. Stay at home and have a nice warm whisky with me,
Ice?"

[tikva]

Tzipi Livni. Yep.

[alexei]

was thinking james brown, but knew that´d fall into ur little trap, so i changed it to stevie wonder (not knowing wat the trap was)

im just as clever! hopefully ill become syndicated soon

[John]

This is where I make my money: www.money.get2.us

What do you think about it?

[Great Genius]

Scott Adams.

You win!!

[TasTigger]

B. Richard Branson

[houmouchow]

hi how are u doing?

[Mantra Mali]

If a man comes to your front door and says he is conducting a survey And asks you to show him your bum, do not show him your bum. This is a scam. He only wants to see your bum. I wish I had got this yesterday. I feel so stupid and cheap. -The Bum http://www.widgetmate.com

[BRS]

It worked! Bill Gates. Err.. is it too late to change my name? :-)

[Romby]

Anders Wiklöf... richest guy in my community. Wiklöf is the last name btw. So it didn't work on me, sorry.

[whaleman]

Winston Churchill

[Manu Sharma]

It worked. Peter Diamandis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Diamandis