For 15 years I’ve been a professional ear in the velvet-roped circus of men’s style, sport, and spectacle. Yes, it is all fun and fancy to get to chat to some of the world’s most interesting and impactful people but having good conversation is a skill.
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Forget the press pass; my real tool has always been a simple, open question. Used correctly, it’s the key to the treasure chest of human eccentricity. Getting people to open up and talk is a key part of my work; getting them to elaborate and share things that they haven’t before, well, that’s even better.
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We live in a noisy world, where everyone shouts their headlines. My cozy corner of it is dedicated to finding the footnotes, the sotto voce asides, the accidental revelations that are far more illuminating than the crafted public images that has been signed-off and approved to include an acceptable amount of buzzwords and boredom.
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Mine is a collection of anecdotes, moments, character traits and, ultimately, knowledge. The benefit is pure, distilled whimsy and wisdom, bottled for my personal consumption.
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Swipe through and you will see the latest set of stories in the new issue of
@esquiremiddleeast - dubbed The Interview Issue.
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The true benefit of being a professional listener is that the greatest education is simply to watch how others navigate the bizarre, beautiful chaos of life. When I ask a celebrated architect about design, he talks about the essential need for negative space—the silence that makes the music possible. Suddenly, I’m not just learning about buildings; I’m learning about the space I need to carve out in my own crammed calendar.
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Every conversation is a peek behind the curtain. We assume success arrives in a straight line, but the truth, whispered to me in countless cigar lounges and hotel suites, is that it’s a zig-zag of near-misses, glorious fumbles, and moments where sheer, improbable luck stepped in.
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The beauty of all this is that by digging for the truth in others, you invariably uncover more of your own. After years, I’ve learned that the secret to a good life, much like a good interview, is less about having the perfect answer & all to do with asking the right question.
