Train hard and devote your time to whatever craft you hope to excel in. Arrogance just comes across like ignorance if you’re bragging about something you don’t even fully understand, or practice.
Stand up straight at all times, keeping your shoulders back and your head up and at attention. Move purposefully. Don’t wander around rooms, or take little half-steps toward the bar. Walk right up to it at full-stride and grab a place at the table. Smile less. If you want to communicate your superiority, try your best to remain aloof and gaze critically at others as they complete tasks.
The earlier your start competing, the better. If you instill a serious competitive edge in yourself early in life, it’ll carry through your adult years. Be competitive in all facets of your life. When Rafael Nadal was injured and needed to recover from competitive tennis, he started playing high-stakes poker, becoming obsessed, just to keep that arrogant edge.
Never, under any circumstances, take it easy on someone. Arrogant people compete at a high level at all times. It’s also important to challenge upper-level opponents that will actually challenge your skills, but it’s also helpful to fight the occasional squash match.
It doesn’t matter if this is true or not. Just make it seem true by living ostentatiously, showing flash when you’ve got it. Wear your success visibly.
This involves a certain amount of conformity and a dedication to a particular look. You have to subscribe to the expected image of the “arrogant athlete” or the “arrogant bro” and find the style and garments that fulfill that image. Be groomed in the way that your arrogant field calls for. Arrogant rockers have to look as if their awesome-looking hair was the last thing they thought of that day, and the perfect-fitting leather jacket just fell into their lap.
Only brag about things that you do excellently. It’s much more difficult to brag when you’re only mediocre, and then your arrogance just comes off as ignorance. If you want to command presence, brag when you’ve got a reason. If you want to be more arrogant, you don’t need to wait for an opening to brag, just start doing it. Arrogance is bullish and obvious, and arrogant people don’t care if everyone knows it. Feel free to slightly embellish your accomplishments as well. It’s better to exaggerate slightly than to flat-out lie, because you can get your arrogant bubble burst a little if people find out you didn’t do as well as you claimed.
Let your standards evolve with your skills. The more you accomplish, the higher your standards should become. It’s not enough to win one championship, you have to repeat and three-peat, you have to win MVP trophies, and be the best in the room. If someone offers a compliment, an arrogant person will sometimes respond with something like, “Oh, that’s nothing. I’m not even trying. "
You don’t need to do it in a rude way to be arrogant, but it does help to be somewhat blunt. If your teammate or opponent in a game messes up a play, let them know that you disapprove, gently but firmly: “You know and I know that was a bad play. You just lost that for us. Pass me the ball next time. "
A lot of this will happen ahead of the game. Learn to identify your competition and keep them either on your side by befriending them and working together to dominate, or by knocking them down a few pegs before they get the chance to gain confidence and challenge you.
David Letterman Chandler from Friends Barney from How I Met Your Mother Lady Gaga Ron Burgundy Terry Crews Oprah Winfrey Phil McGraw (Dr. Phil)
In some cases, it might also help to invent slights or perceived insults that help to motivate you. Michael Jordan used to tape up disses from other players in his locker to help motivate him to dominate on the court. Come up with story lines for yourself to help give you something to work with. Position yourself as the underdog, even if you’re the best in the room. Pretend that you’re overcoming the odds, even if you’re doing what you know you can do. Keep that fire lit.
Your friend just got back from a vacation at the beach? It should probably remind you of that one time you went snorkeling in Malaysia with local fishermen and lived on the beach in a grass hut. If you teach your friend how to do something, you can tell them that you learned how to do it in a few seconds (or however shorter than theirs might be). This will probably make them feel less superior and feel they can never do things as soon as you can.
Your boss Coaches Your parents Service staff Dates
Never talk down to wait-staff or other service workers in the interest of cultivating your arrogance. This will make you look weak, petty, and immature. Forgetting someone’s name might seem like a good way to take them down a peg, but it really just makes you look like a jerk. Respect people enough to treat them with common dignity, up to the point that you dominate them in competition.
It’s good to learn to lose, so you don’t end up looking like a cry-baby after a close loss. Learn to lose with dignity, because no matter how arrogant your self-image, it’s going to happen eventually.
Always do what you say you will do. You’ve got to live up to the hype that you set for yourself, or you’ll just come off like an ego-inflated loser, just like any other. When it’s your turn on the field of competition, bring it.
After winning a championship, do the Jordan move and try out baseball. Aim to be the best at some other related field. After you dominate the world of industry, become the best fly-fisherman you can be. Set endless goals and meet them.
