Close Protecting Celebrities, Is It All It"s Cracked Up To Be
Lots of people want to be in close protection to famous people.
The truth is, Celebrity Details are probably the most coveted positions, but represent only one small sector of Close Protection.
Details can range from accompanying a company MD to a shareholders meeting, to acting as a close protection/personal assistant to a celebrity, to the most dangerous work-protecting Diplomats from terrorist attacks.
Most people who desire careers as close Protection have glamorous thoughts about the work.
Well.
First, if you are a big fan of a particular celebrity-do NOT seek employment as his or her CPO, the Chances are shortly after you begin to work for them you will no longer be a fan.
Secondly, you must be willing to sacrifice your personal life, since all your time and attention will be focused on taking care of your principal.
And by "taking care" I don't mean just wearing a dark suit and hanging around backstage, on the red carpet, at trendy watering holes, restaurants and clubs.
Your Body Guard duties will often require you to act more as a Personal Assistant.
For CPO's your own personal life and needs will pretty much take a back seat, while the principal's life and needs are paramount.
The money you earn can be superb, But when you take into account the number of hours in the day that are not your own, and the time that you are away from family-well, let's just say it's ideally a job for a single person without any love life or family attachments.
Thirdly, close protection work requires the ability to spend hours upon hours doing nothing.
Let me clarify: you are keeping an eye on your principal, alert to over-zealous fans, press and paparazzi, but often my job would consist of sitting for 12 hours in a Hotel watching Butlers or other staff working.
It is tedious, mind-numbing imagine 10-12 hour long sessions like this-for days and days and days at a time.
The last big fallacy as regards this career is the idea of "celebrity by association.
" It's vitally important for anybody working with a celebrity to understand this: YOU ARE NOT A CELEBRITY.
I except, it's exciting to tell your friends you've walked a red carpet, or you're travelling to Europe, or you met Michael Jordon.
But the fact is, you are pretty much in the hands of someone else, usually connected from the hip to that person nearly every waking hour and nobody knows your name, or even cares to.
In fact, the more anonymous and unobtrusive you are the better.
All that having been said, there were a lot of wonderful things about being a celebrity CPO.
The truth is, Celebrity Details are probably the most coveted positions, but represent only one small sector of Close Protection.
Details can range from accompanying a company MD to a shareholders meeting, to acting as a close protection/personal assistant to a celebrity, to the most dangerous work-protecting Diplomats from terrorist attacks.
Most people who desire careers as close Protection have glamorous thoughts about the work.
Well.
First, if you are a big fan of a particular celebrity-do NOT seek employment as his or her CPO, the Chances are shortly after you begin to work for them you will no longer be a fan.
Secondly, you must be willing to sacrifice your personal life, since all your time and attention will be focused on taking care of your principal.
And by "taking care" I don't mean just wearing a dark suit and hanging around backstage, on the red carpet, at trendy watering holes, restaurants and clubs.
Your Body Guard duties will often require you to act more as a Personal Assistant.
For CPO's your own personal life and needs will pretty much take a back seat, while the principal's life and needs are paramount.
The money you earn can be superb, But when you take into account the number of hours in the day that are not your own, and the time that you are away from family-well, let's just say it's ideally a job for a single person without any love life or family attachments.
Thirdly, close protection work requires the ability to spend hours upon hours doing nothing.
Let me clarify: you are keeping an eye on your principal, alert to over-zealous fans, press and paparazzi, but often my job would consist of sitting for 12 hours in a Hotel watching Butlers or other staff working.
It is tedious, mind-numbing imagine 10-12 hour long sessions like this-for days and days and days at a time.
The last big fallacy as regards this career is the idea of "celebrity by association.
" It's vitally important for anybody working with a celebrity to understand this: YOU ARE NOT A CELEBRITY.
I except, it's exciting to tell your friends you've walked a red carpet, or you're travelling to Europe, or you met Michael Jordon.
But the fact is, you are pretty much in the hands of someone else, usually connected from the hip to that person nearly every waking hour and nobody knows your name, or even cares to.
In fact, the more anonymous and unobtrusive you are the better.
All that having been said, there were a lot of wonderful things about being a celebrity CPO.
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