readers most wanted to read and which photos they most wanted to see. Diana had made it her business to get to know the editors and chairmen of every important media outlet – just as, back when she was a young, unmarried woman, she had gotten to know the journalists who stalked her. She invited key newspaper editors to private lunches at Kensington Palace. “An encounter with the Princess on her own turf became a full-on multimedia experience combining all she had learned and wanted to project,” explained her biographer Brown. The chief editor of a society magazine reported: “Everything went into the performance of BeingDiana.” Expressing her desire to become a “Queen of People’s Hearts,” Diana had concisely and memorably formulated her key brand message – and had done so just as well as Steve Jobs did when he first marketed his iPhone. So, how did Diana position herself? Of course, she could not just rely on her good looks. Diana – very astutely in this respect – recognised early on that it would have been completely impossible for her to try to shine in intellectual or political arenas. Why try to compete in domains where she could only lose and embarrass herself? Her positioning, her USP, was the “Queen of People’s Hearts.” Psychologically, Diana was an extremely unstable woman with serious problems: she suffered from bulimia; after a fight with her husband, she cut her chest and thighs with a pocket knife; she was not able to develop a normal, harmonious or loving relationship with any of her partners, but was completely unable to have a functioning relationship; and normal friendships were also very difficult for her. The number of her outcast friends grew almost daily. But this was only one side of Diana. Like many people with psychological problems, she was extremely empathetic to the needs of others, especially those she did not know. She probably suffered from what the psychoanalyst Wolfgang Schmidbauer described as the “helper syndrome” in his book Helpless Helpers. The term refers to a pattern of mental problems that are often found among helping professions. As a consequence of their special personality, “helpers” try to compensate for their own feelings of inferiority by becoming fixated on their roles as helpers. In itsmost extreme form, their willingness to help can even lead to self-harm and neglect of family and other relationships, which can result in burnout or depression. She had difficulties in dealing with intellectuals. But she knew how to turn her deficit, namely her lack of education and conventional intelligence, into an advantage. Diana, more than perhaps any other woman before her, was a master of selfpromotion. Pretty much everyone can remember her impressive TV interview and the way she shone and formulated her messages, capturing the hearts of people all around the world in the process. She engineered ingenious public relations coups, such as a book about her relationship with her husband, which she claimed she had nothing to do with. In truth, the book was her idea and she read every word of it prior to publication and even added notes and corrections to the margins of the manuscript. Everyone can learn from Diana: a lack of education and even conventional intelligence need not be a disadvantage if you have mastered the art of turning weaknesses into strengths and disadvantages into advantages. THE DISRUPTORS THE DISRUPTORS Photo: Wikicommons - TechCrunch About the author: Dr. Rainer Zitelmann is a historian and sociologist. He is also a worldrenowned author who has written 25 books, a successful businessman and real estate investor. His latest book: How People Become Famous: Geniuses of Self-Marketing from Albert Einstein to Kim Kardashian – (https://how-people-become-famous. com) was published in November 2021.
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