Every celebrity personal assistant will have various duties that are specific to the profession of the person they’re working for, but the following are some basics that you should not be without. And don’t forget, the more you have to offer an employer, the more likely they are to hire you, and the more you’re likely to get paid.

Persuasive Communication

“Liza [Minnelli] didn’t have a clue how to live in the real world. If she wanted something, she expected it to be there. One Saturday night at 7:30 p.m., she called me into her dressing room and told me that since we were doing a benefit matinee on Sunday afternoon, she wanted me to decorate all the dressing rooms and fill them with flowers. It never occurred to her that all the florists and stores were already closed.

“By thinking on my feet and dropping Liza’s name (and money), I was able to talk a florist into working half the night. I found one party store that was open on Sunday. I was there when they opened, then I talked a couple of my friends into going to the theater with me. We hung crepe paper and valentines and the flowers arrived and the dressing rooms were beautiful when the actors arrived. It never occurred to Liza that accomplishing this was something of a feat.”
—Linda Brumfield, former Celebrity Personal Assistant

I was reading the papers the other day, and came across someone talking about "unskilled American workers." Oh my, oh my, I thought to myself, as a paraphrase of Pete Seeger's song began to run through my mind (well, strolled, actually): "When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?"

Skills. Was ever there a more misunderstood subject, or a more misunderstood word?

It has been so, for ages: people "putting down" other people by saying, "They have no skills."

Let us stand in front of the mirror, and say it loud and clear: "Everyone has skills. Everyone has skills." Dozens. Hundreds.

I teach a two week workshop every summer, attended by people from around the world, poor, rich, young, old, schooled and unschooled, and no one – no one – has ever failed to have at least 500 skills. The only question is: which kind, and what are they?