How to Develop Perfect Memory

3 WHAT'S IN A NAME? What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.'

ROMEO AND JULIET, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE NAMES AND FACES Shakespeare might have been right about roses, but we all know how embarrassing it can be to forget someone's name. People are flattered when you remember it, but insulted when you don't. You might as well tell them, 'You have made no impression on me at all. You don't exist in my world. You are completely forgettable.'

I speak from painful experience. For the first thirty years of my life, I forgot people's names with spectacular enthusiasm. In the early days, I used to wade in with clumsy approximations, near misses that still make me squirm today.

Then I switched tactics and started to call people 'there'. 'Hello, there,' I would say, smiling weakly, as old friends came up to me at parties. Worse still, they would invariably ask me to introduce them to people I had only just met.

Mercifully I no longer fear introductions. Remembering people's names is such a simple skill, and yet it has changed my life. It could change yours if you are prepared to practise a little. I am more confident in social situations, at parties, at business meetings. It has even made me wealthier, or at least it should have done...

I was once asked to recall everyone's name at a dinner party in Mayfair, London. The hostess wanted me to memorize the first and surnames of all her guests, the majority of whom I had never set eyes on before. There were just over a hundred people in total, and they were seated at various tables around the room.

A wealthy businessman sitting on my right didn't believe that this was possible. He had never met me before, but he had heard that I was a professional card-counter - someone who wins at blackjack by relying on mathematics rather than luck. Laughing at the prospect of memorizing over one hundred