It should be easy enough in this day and age; after all we are constantly surrounded by television shows that offer us the chance to put our face on the box.

We have the option of playing for big money, for the privilege of being insulted, for the pleasure of admitting we have a problem, to convey our opinions to politicians, to admit we are useless at driving, at cooking, at sleeping with someone.

We have the chance to stay in a house with people we have never met, the chance to sing for our supper and even the chance to make something and watch it being destroyed by someone else.

Yet the problem has become not so much of getting our face on television, radio, print, the internet, or whatever other media you care to name or create, it is how to get recognised and to be asked to do other things.

Currently on UK television is possibly the most shameful excuse for those who have had fifteen minutes of fame, to try and have another fifteen. Yet this is symptomatic of the problem itself. Because the number of ways to become famous has increased, so has the number of people that want to become famous. It once again returns to talent.

You may be able to get onto television, but where as before that would have been memorable, now it is not.

Once upon a time if someone was talented and very lucky they became very famous and the process then fed off of itself. Then the reality TV explosion occurred. Suddenly people became famous simply for being themselves, even if the personality they displayed in the past would normally have made them the last person to be given any form of recognition.

Suddenly the media was awash with people who would never have been let into the building previously but now were considered to be bright young things. Suddenly those who were talented were sidelined. Yet the same problem that befell the talented people was waiting for the victors and victims of reality television. They suddenly not only needed to be good at whatever they wanted to do, but equally had to be noticed as the flood gates opened and a mass of equally desperate people flooded in.

There is a fine line between infamous and famous. A fact that some of them failed to notice.

The question remains, how do you get noticed in the first place? Assuming you have a high level of talent and ability for something then it is easy, if not then you need to force the issue.

One solution is a publicity stunt.

This can be anything from standing still in a block of ice, to being linked to someone famous. The choice is up to you, however the more extreme stunt, the more likely you are to be noticed by the news papers or the current cavalcade of news channels. Using your new found exposure you can secure the services of an agent who for a flat fee or a percentage of your future earnings will make sure that no one will forget you in a hurry.

However simply doing a publicity stunt is not enough, you must be willing to push yourself after the event, otherwise it can so easily be a wasted effort.

Another is to actually be good at what you wish to do.

You can spend a long time at stage school, learn to play a musical instrument, audition for a theatre show, build up your competence and become noted for your ability rather than the skills of your agent.

A person these days has two options if they wish to become famous. They can carry out a publicity stunt, join a reality TV show and hope that the public like them, then become a host on another show / columnist on a newspaper, or they can spend their time slowly and become the best they can be.

One brings riches quickly, one brings success slowly. The choice is yours.

It is important to note that Machiavelli once said that if success was achieved quickly, it will be lost equally quickly. If success was hard won, then it will be hard for it to be lost.