How does someone become a recognized expert in their business
category? For example, how does an ad agency executive become a
celebrity in their industry or a doctor become a recognized television
celebrity.

I've done research on Google, Yahoo and other search engines on the
following topics:

Becoming an expert
How to be an expert
From unknown to known
What it takes to become a well known expert

Thanks,
Dave

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Clarification of Question by boldapproach-ga on 16 Jul 2004 08:25 PDT

In order to help clarify the question, maybe asking what are the steps
to achieve celebrity status or instant celebrity rather than just
expert status. How does someone go quickly from unknown to well known?

Being published is certainly an important part; this can mean either
writing articles themselves in trade and commercial magazines or
newspapers, writing a book (with or without a ghostwriter to do the
actual writing), or getting lots of interviews in print. This tends to
lead to getting interviews on radio and tv, too, which is how most
people recognize "experts." In addition, entering contests and winning
well known prizes tends to lead to "expert" status. The details of all
this varies from field to field, so if you want more specific info,
you'd probably need to narrow down your question to a single field.

Kriswrite

Jim Slater a UK stock exchange guru of yesteryear explained this with
his 'Zulu Theory'.

If I remember correctly, this is how it went ...

If you read a magazine article on Zulus you will then know more than
most folk about Zulus.

If you then read a book on Zulus, you become an expert on Zulus.

If you then go to Zululand and meet a few Zulus, you become a World
Expert on Zulus.

I am not sure whether it was Slater or not who said that an expert was
someone who knows 'a bit more' than other folk.

So, it's easy provided your subject is esoteric enough.

Sorry, but it might now be too late to become an expert on Zulus.

I recommend becoming a member of relevant trade or professional
organizations then pick one or two topics that fascinate you within
those realms and do public speaking on those topics.  For example, if
you are an attorney and you are interested in copyright law, I suggest
you join your local and national bar associations, become a member of
specific subgroups devoted to intellectual property law within those
organizations, then study and learn about fairly granular topics
within your area of interest.  Since you like copyright law, begin to
study some interesting aspect of it, like SCO's claims against IBM
that it is infringing SCO's copyrights in Unix by its use of Linux. 
Once you are well versed on what many will perceive as a very esoteric
topic, you should then contact your local bar association and begin
offering to speak on the topic you now have amassed great familiarity
with.  Public speaking and presenting on a topic to your peers is an
excellent way to gain notoriety as an expert on that topic.  Although
you may be speaking on an esoteric subtopic, your peers will certainly
infer that you are an expert on the topic more broadly as well.  So,
pick a topic, open your books, get knowledgeable, write your talk,
prepare your PowerPoint slides, and hit the speaking circuit.  Once
you have spoken to your peers, begin speaking to others who may have
an interest in your chosen specialty?-using our example, you could
offer to talk to college level computer software classes, IT managers,
software companies?-the list goes on and on.

Aha!

Well, of course, that is a VERY different question.

celebrities are rarely expert on anything other the projection of their own image.

But a lot of them have that certain something.

Have you got that certain something?

And, for many, it doesn't happen quickly although they do get there in the end.

I agree with probonopublico--that is a very different question.  In my
experience, what you are asking is very much a matter of luck and
being in the right place at the right time.  How can you control or
predict that?   Even those folks who are percieved as "overnight
successes" will tell you that they worked for years (getting
published, as kriswrite said, or developing their professional skills,
as I suggested, or playing music in smoky beer joints) before they
became "instantly famous."

So if you ~truly~ want to go from unknown to instantly famous, you
better be in the right place at the right time with the right
look/skills/talent.