Every Wednesday for the past five years, Enrique Iglesias would wake up before 7 a.m., pick up the telephone and call his manager. With calculated calmness, Colombian Fern?n Mart?nez would look over the Billboard charts, the Bible of the music industry, and with a sleepy voice, he would tell Enrique what position his songs had reached.

For artists, a manager is somewhat of a professional father... the creative and administrative genius behind their talent....

A star is not made from nothing, and without the presence of a qualified and astute manager, perhaps the star would not be successful. But a manager cannot function if he or she does not have an artist who dreams of being a star. ?And who possesses talent, charisma and his or her own style,? assures Fern?n Mart?nez, Enrique Iglesias? former manager. ?A good manager has to have the eyes and ears to identify those qualities, because as good as he might be, he can?t invent a star. When I heard Enrique I was moved, and I knew he was going to be a superstar,? says Fern?n, who took everyone by surprise last February by announcing his professional separation from Enrique, his exclusive artist, after working with him for five years and making him into a star.

Did Enrique have doubts about his ability to continue managing him? ?I don?t think so... because if you become one of the biggest artists in the world, you have to have had one of the best managers in the world. I think an artist has the right to change managers in order to be revitalized because the artist alone can?t do it,? he says, and assures, ?I taught him what he had to know and did for him what I had to do. One day he told me that a North American company (the same one that manages ?N Sync) promised him more success in the American market, and I told him, ?If you think it?s the best thing for you, with me there are no problems.?

Does he feel defrauded by Enrique? Fern?n didn?t want to talk about it. Nor did he want to label him as ungrateful. He only talked about the results of those five years. He took Enrique to the top ranking position in sales and airplay in the Spanish-language market and negotiated a contract for $40 million with Universal . He also convinced him to record Bailamos , his first English hit, arranged for him to be one of the headline acts in the Superbowl and the American Music Awards , got him a VH1 pop star special and set up worldwide tours for him, among other successes.

According to Mart?nez, in order to have success one must be astute at administering money, be creative with the product that the artist presents to the public, insist that the record company promote the artist. ?You have to know how to handle the media and sell a positive image to the fans,? says Mart?nez, who was also head publicist for Julio Iglesias, general producer of the Show de Cristina (Cristina Show), consultant to politicians like the president of Colombia, Andr?s Pastrana and manager of Ch?beli Iglesias.

Year after year, he also successfully kept Enrique at the top of the Billboard charts, the so-called Bible of the music industry. Fern?n used a strategy that never failed him... ?To motivate Enrique I used to create imaginary enemies for him. I would tell him: So-and-so is really sticking it to us in Argentina, So-and-so is giving us a run for our money in Mexico... And to reward him, I would say: So-and-So is eating our dust in Puerto Rico. I always told him: There are number one hits every day, the important thing is being number one and staying there.?

And Enrique stayed on top and jumped in line as one of the most famous artists in the world, thanks to the most unbelievable strategies. To Fern?n, the fans were the greatest allies, a tactic that he copied from the famous managers of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. ?I would have them call the radio stations or go wherever Enrique would be. I made sure that the press saw and knew of his success.?

The press were also his ?right-hand men-women?. ?I would always feed them positive news and I even motivated them;? he says, telling an anecdote. ?I wanted Enrique to be in the Los Angeles Times , but the editor didn?t think it was important. I found out where he lived and put two billboards near his home that said: Enrique Iglesias... the legend continues. A week later he was calling us.?

A free show is sometimes the best promotion for an artist. ?You have to know where to appear. A performance for charity can have greater impact than any concert.? Parties and luxuries feed the egos of artists, but they don?t measure their success. ?If you?re unknown, you arrive in a limosine, but Enrique showed that he was a star in other ways. He hated limosines and preferred taxis, a bottle of water instead of champagne and he liked McDonalds instead of caviar. The only thing we insisted on was quality lighting and sound.?

To be successful in other markets, such as Europe and Asia-- and even in North America-- you have to begin at zero. ?You have to decide if you want to keep being the king of your own market or start out being number 200 in the world. That?s where the artist demonstrates his star quality and his manager demonstrates his ability to work in other markets? -- places where Enrique has been kept waiting while in America he can?t walk in the streets. ?My formula for success is simple: If you enter an airport and 10 people know him, and when you leave 200 people ask for autographs, that?s success,? says Fern?n, who always traveled with Enrique. ?We knew each other so well that with a look we could tell what the other was thinking. I was his friend, a little bit of a psychologist and like his father. My problem with him was... getting him up in the morning and getting him to go to bed at night; other than that, he was very disciplined.?

Even though it?s the artist who contracts his manager, Fern?n assures that being a manager is like being the ?bosses? boss?... the artist is always the boss, but I had to tell him what to do, get him up, watch what he ate, make sure he rehearsed, that he didn?t catch a cold, keep him out of trouble,? he says nostalgically.

Is there still the possibility that you might advise him (be his consultant) in the future? ?Oh, yes, of course; and I know that if he had a problem, he would come back to me.? But Fern?n has other plans. ?I?m looking for the next superstar... It could be a young man (they say that he?s in negotiation with Eduardo Ver?stegui), a girl or a group. When I find them, they will have to move me the way Enrique did, to make it worth all the late nights and working weekends,? he says, at the same time revealing that he?s creating a record company with song writers Stephano and Robi Rosa. ?Ricky Martin?s success took us all by surprise, but instead of upsetting us, he opened the door for all of us.?

Fern?n with his two stars: his wife, a reporter with Despierta Am?rica , Paola Guti?rrez, and his daughter, Isabella.