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Magazine Editor:
Jessica Vosgerchian
Editor in Chief:
Gary Graca
Managing Editor:
Courtney Ratkowiak
Photo Editor:
Sam Wolson
Multimedia Editor:
David Azad Merian
Junk Drawer:
Brian Tengel
Center spread design:
Lan Truong
Cover photo:
Sam Wolson
The Statement is The Michigan
Daily's news magazine, which is
distributed every Wednesday
during the academic year

new rules
rule 191: No
matter what,
your friend's
new haircut
is a cute new
haircut. rule
192: You don't
have to answer
the door when
your obnoxious
neighbor comes
over looking
to drink your
beer. rule 193:
If you're going
to skip class
to enjoy the
weather, don't
even bother to
e-mail your GSI
an excuse.
- E-mail rule submissions to
TheStatementumich.edu

Seduiction 101
No post-graduation plans? A University alum thinks you should attend his charm school
By Stephen Ostrowski ( Daily Staff Writer

WHO'S YOUR NOMINEE
FOR STUDENT OF THE YEAR?
The Michigan Daily is looking for nominations for the Students of the Year edition of
The Statement, which will feature people from every corner of campus whose personal
achievements or contributions to the community deserve special recognition.
Please e-mail vosgerchian@michigandaily.com with a description of the nominee's
accomplishments along with the student's full name, e-mail address, college and year.
DEADLINE: MARCH 25

W ith Tila Tequila booze-
hounding on MTV, Bret
Michaels collecting groupies on
VH1 (along with, most likely, the
occasional venereal disease) and
Flavor Flav all but putting Solo-
mon's Biblical harem to shame on
"Flavor of Love," it would seem as if
the adage "chivalry is dead" hardly
stands upon skanky - er, shaky -
ground.
But if cable television has killed
chivalry, Jordan Harbinger plans to
bring it back - and then some.
The 29-year-old Michigan Law
School alum is one of the found-
ers of The Art Of Charm, a New
York-based program claiming to be,
as described on its website, "The
World's Authority on Dating and
Relationships". That's a rather bold
statement, but the company has
some credentials to back itup.With a
bevy of popular programs and semi-
nars, a Sirius satellite show reaching
24 million listeners and a clientele
that Harbinger said includes Aber-
crombie models, a millionaire and
gold-medal-winning Olympians,
The Art Of Charm seems to be doing
something right.
The "charm school" - or at least
the first inkling of it - originated
in Ann Arbor. While in law school,
Harbinger realized that the major-
ity of his acquaintances didn't nec-
essarily make friends out of choice
but rather out of circumstance
- they formed "proximity-based"
relationships with other students in
his classes.
From here, the first cogs of The
Art Of Charm were set into motion.
"There'sgottobeasciencebehind
this," Harbinger said. "There's got to
be a science behind meeting people
and gettingthem to like you."
Looking online, Harbinger stum-
bled upon a self-described "under-
ground community of guys" trying
to figure out the "science" of attrac-
tion. Citing Neil Strauss's pickup
manifesto "The Game" as an impe-
tus, Harbinger began to apply his
research to his own interactions

with women. Soon after, Harbin-
ger recruited friend and soon-to-be
business partner AJ Kaczorowski
in an effort to refine their charisma
into a science. Harbinger and Kac-
zorowski featured their findings on
their podcast show "Pickup Pod-
cast".
"People started asking us, 'Hey
man, can you teach me this in per-

... that type of advice is ineffective,"
Harbinger said.
The self-promoted master
charmer knocked the aforemen-
tioned motherly advice, which he
said hides one's "true self" from a
woman and consequently leads to a
shaky relationship.
"It's not just keeping the girl
interested and reeled into you, it's

times more perceptive than males,
and consequently, poor body lan-
guage from men alerts women of
uneasiness.
"If I can teach you how to com-
municate that (self) value to other
people more effectively, and -to
check in with those people to see if
they are actually on the same page
as you, that's going to fix your inse-

Art Of Charm sort of comes off like
a "get chicks quick" scheme aimed
at gullible shy guys.
"I don't think charm is some-
thing you can be taught, no matter
how much money you put out," LSA
sophomore Jamila Sharif said. "It's
something you're born with."
Students of The Art Of Charm
pony up a considerable sum of
money for supposed social enlight-
enment. While "Get Her Number"
seminars start at $97 (as listed on
theartofcharm.com), the One-Week
Live-In Program, which invites cli-
ents to "live the charismatic lifestyle
with all of the executive coaches at
The Art Of Charm New York City
Headquarters," comes at a cool
$3,997. Admittedly, the program's
premise is unique, but should top
dollar be spent to essentially learn
romance?
"I don't know if I would respect
(a male client) any less," LSA
sophomore Melissa Brown said. "I
would just hope we connected on
some other level than just what he
learned."
Sharif, though, finds the whole
idea of a charm school-trained lover
creepy.
"Some women would be happy
with a guy who got trained to be
the way he is," she said. "But I just
wouldn't."
Perhaps most disturbing is the
website's promotion of the "Win-
dow Shopping for Women eBook,"
which teaches Internet users how
to set up their Myspace or Face-
book profiles to catch a woman's
attention - which the website says
allows clients "to meet tons of high
quality women from the comfort of
your own home."
Regardless of what you think of
Harbinger's science of seduction,
you at least have to respect his confi-
dent, life-affirming philosophy that
has helped him create a successful
online business - even if he profited
off of other people's insecurities.
"Go for what you want," Harbin-
ger said. "And take it to the max."

son? The podcast changed my whole
life,' " said Harbinger of the pod-
cast's initial success.
As a lawyer on Wall Street, how-
ever, Harbinger hardly had time to
branch out beyond the radio waves.
Harbinger reeled in two relationship
coaches he had met through work,
and combining his system with
theirs, cultivated the rapid growth
of a popular coaching business.
The Art Of Charm, simply put,
stems from unconventional - and,
some mightsay, brash - wisdom.
"If you ask your mom - which
you probably never do - how you
would meet women, she's going to
tell you to justbe yourself, be nice to
the woman, buy her some chocolate

about understanding what moti-
vates people at a primal level," Har-
binger said. Armed with a team of
"highly trained social dynamists
and psychologists," Harbinger and
his company have analyzed many
types of human interaction to see
which types of relationships are
most likely to succeed.
According to Harbinger, The Art
Of Charm "fixes people's insecu-
rities at core levels". This leads to
higher confidence and better com-
munication, two intangibles that
greatly factor into the success of
relationships. The program's cur-
riculum, for example, stresses the
importance of body language. Har-
binger said women are five to ten

curity," Harbinger said. "So instead
of giving you a fish so you can eat for
a day, we teach you how to fish so
you can eat for the rest of your life."
As expected, The Art of Charm is
not without criticism - but despite
what one might expect, it's not from
the women who are the target of
pursuit, Harbinger said.
"It's from guys who don't want
to admit to themselves they can
change," he said.
Still, one cannot help but wonder
whether social interaction can real-
ly be boiled down to a science. With
a website advertising programs
called things like "Get Her Num-
ber," "Three-Day Boot Camp" and
"One-Week Live-In Program", The