The Story About Stories!

 

Everyone loves a good story. Stories are a communal currency of humanity quoted Tahir Shah in Arabian Nights. And without wanting to sound far fetched, storytelling is our obligation to the next generation. Passing on the baton, if you may.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.
Forget about being perfect because it is boring, predictable and inauthentic. Be imperfect, authentic and relatable. Way too many people don’t share their valuable lessons because of fear of not being good enough. You are good enough! Share your story and touch people’s hearts and heads.
If you care about it, it’s probably a story. We remember a famous sporting win, not because we were there, but because the story resonates with us. We vote for candidates because of their stories, and shop at stores that have a story that strikes a chord with us.
Ideas are aplenty, but ideas without action are regrets. The last time we took action on an idea, extended our hand to a friend, went beyond self-doubt to launch a new project- all these happened because the story worked.
And it’s possible to tell a better story. Just get started.
It’s on us. We need to learn how to hear stories, figure out which ones are resonating, and do the difficult and urgent work to make our stories more effective.
Because if we care about it, it’s worth doing better.
Storytelling is metaphorically speaking in our DNA! We are storytellers. We are called Homo Sapiens, but we could also have been called Homo Narratus. Those who could tell great stories around the campfire would increase the odds of the group surviving. The parents who could tell great stories about lessons on the savanna, how to hunt and other essential skills would increase the chances of their offspring later becoming parents themselves- Asger Lindholdt
Don’t be trapped into following the Hollywood Paradigm of Storytelling viz- Set-Up, Conflict, Resolution. Thats an established practice in the movie business. Good stories will always captivate audiences, whatever the medium.Therefore its power is limitless.
In 6,000 years of storytelling, people have gone from depicting hunting on cave walls to depicting Shakespeare on Facebook walls. – Joe Sabia
Are you telling your story? Because, remember, your story matters!
ENDS

Trapped in a World of Having The Last Word?

 

‘ Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough‘ – Karl Marx 

 

That is a telling narrative on our compulsive need to play the power dynamics game. Of having the last word. Accumulating brownie points.

 

In the context of life’s brevity, last words do take a different meaning. Often, the words are brief because there is no energy for a full conversation. “Mama” is one of the most common last words that people speak ( no surprises there). Some people’s last utterances are curse words. Others may mumble a word that holds significance to them – but it may mean nothing to their families – for their final words.

 

Contrarian as it may sound, but an apology is a good way to have the last word. And set the foundation for the connection, communication and conversation to move forward. 

 

 

You can’t win them all, you can’t please them all nor can you convince them all. So, if the person on the other end is not singing from your hymn sheet, or doesn’t agree with you, smile, nod and move onto more important things. A simple strategy that will save you so many headaches: don’t care about winning trivial arguments.

 

Weak people take revenge. Strong people forgive. Intelligent people ignore. Life is short. Learning to not care about having the last word will save you so much time.

 

Your chances of being heard and understood grows exponentially when you adopt the disciplined practice to listen.

 

My last words before I conclude this post would be:-

 

” Never try to have the last word. You might get it ” – Robert Heinlein

 

ENDS

 

The Late Mover Advantage

 

Oftentimes in marketing we use terms like Last Mover Advantage or Late Mover Advantage ‘. Brands coming to life at a later stage in a category that is established or maturing can reap the learnings and unlearnings of brands who have come before them. There is a vast reservoir of knowledge and actionable intelligence readily available without one having to go through the grind, time and expense of trial and error.

 

Over time that civilization set foot on this planet, 107 billion people have lived throughout history. The current world population is just over 8 billion( 8,059,147,655 as of Friday, September 8, 2023) according to the most recent United Nations estimates elaborated by Worldometer.

These billions of people who came before us have tried things, failed, learned, tried things differently. And in doing so, they discovered new solutions. Which people like us now get to inherit, learn from and use, without the steep learning curve of trial and error.
Accumulated experience can be a competitive advantage for a company. As a company or a brand operates and accumulates experience in a given market or sector, it can develop a deeper understanding of customer needs and preferences, as well as of the challenges and opportunities in the market. This accumulated experience can enable the company to make more informed and effective decisions and to identify opportunities that may not be obvious to other companies.
Similarly, the cumulative lessons of those 107 billion people have been passed down to us. It is the greatest gift we will ever receive. We are smart not because of our individual genius, but because of our collective knowledge. Some of us are better than one of us.
The dead ( or the living before us to put it more respectfully), have left lessons, lineage and legacy for us. After all, there is what we call ‘ the wisdom of the crowds‘. Ratio and Proportion 101 tells us that it is almost a 14:1 ratio i.e. the dead: now living. We can ignore the vast accumulated experience of such a huge majority of mankind at our peril.
Being a late mover is a distinct and valuable competitive advantage. Shouldn’t we choose to leverage it?
ENDS

 

When the Culture is a Vulture and the Law is an …

 

April 10, Circa 1912. Probably, a Red letter Day in the history of passenger shipping. Among other things. Red Ocean would be a fitting metaphor.

 

The Titanic, launched on May 31, 1911, set sail on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City on April 10, 1912, with 2,240 passengers and crew on board. Nicknamed the “Millionaire’s Special,” the ship was fittingly captained by Edward J. Smith, who was known as the “Millionaire’s Captain” because of his popularity with ‘ wealthy passengers ‘.

 

Billed and marketed as the best, the greatest & the safest luxury ship ever built, 2240 people set sail from Southampton to create history. The first transatlantic crossing of the world’s most celebrated ship. One can imagine how mammoth it was- The Titanic was approximately 269 metres long and about 28.2 metres wide at its widest point.
How many have you heard this line ” the LAW is an >>> ” I don’t use three letter words..give me four letter words anytime- please don’t get ideas..words like HOPE | LOVE | NICE..for that matter LIKE..
The British Board of Trade had a law at that time, which effectively was, in order to take sail, a ship should have a lifeboat inventory that is a minimum of 30% of the passenger capacity- the Titanic had lifeboats that could be used by about 900 people at full capacity. Mind you the ship was ferrying almost 2250 people. We all know what happened. More than 1500 people lost their lives in the tragedy.
Apparently, British White Star Line, the owners and operators of the Titanic had complied with the then existing regulations of having a lifeboat inventory of minimum 30% of the ships’ total capacity. In the case of the rest, without lifeboats, they could be all at sea, forgive the pun.

 

As passengers waited to enter the limited number of lifeboats, they were entertained by the Titanic’s musicians, who initially played in the first-class lounge before eventually moving to the ship’s deck. Sources differ on how long they performed, some reporting that it was until shortly before the ship sank. Speculation also surrounded the last song they performed—likely either Autumn or Nearer My God to Thee. Ironical. None of the musicians survived the sinking.

 

In the early hours of April 15th, 1912, over the course of 2 hours and 40 minutes, the RMS Titanic sunk in the icy Atlantic.

 

In the end, an U.S. investigation faulted the British Board of Trade, “to whose laxity of regulation and hasty inspection the world is largely indebted for this awful fatality”. Other contributing causes were also noted, including the failure of Captain Smith to slow the Titanic after receiving ice warnings. However, perhaps the strongest criticism was levied at Captain Lord and the Californian. The committee found that the ship Californian was “nearer the Titanic than the 19 miles reported by her Captain, and that her officers and crew saw the distress signals of the Titanic and failed to respond to them in accordance with the dictates of humanity, international usage, and the requirements of law.”

 

ENDS

 

Hope. Chimera. Action !

 

We know that ideas are aplenty but ideas without action are regrets.

 

Actually I quite like some of the vocabulary that permeates social media communication. Often times you come across someone responding to your WhatsApp or DM with just one word ‘ Done ‘. This four letter word would surely be going along with the grain of crossing the bridge before coming to it. That said, notably, it is also a promise made in advance for action to follow.

 

So practice or principle? Practice, any time. Promise or performance ? It’s a no-brainer, ain’t it? Performance. Knowing, willing or doing? Doing wins hands down.

 

Author and screenwriter Ray Bradbury had this to say on the power of cumulative action:

“Action is hope. At the end of each day, when you’ve done your work, you lie there and think, Well, I’ll be damned, I did this today. It doesn’t matter how good it is, or how bad—you did it. At the end of the week you’ll have a certain amount of accumulation. At the end of a year, you look back and say, I’ll be damned, it’s been a good year.”

 

Attitude precedes outcome. You need to show up before inspiration knocks at your door. 

 

There is no better domicile to be in than at the intersection of thinking, feeling and doing. That is where the biggest contributions stem from. The people that really create the things that change this world in their own little or big ways are both the thinker and doer in one person. As they say, it takes two to tango.

When we think about trying out a new restaurant or an outfit that you normally wouldn’t have or wave a flag against a policy that you are not in alignment with, it is easy to fall into the trap of expecting everyone to notice your action. But, alas, at most times, no one does. That’s because no one cares about the noise in our head (or the actions we take) nearly as much as we do. You might think it’s going to cause a big commotion when you do something that’s inconsistent, but if it’s generous and useful, it’ll simply happen. So stay the course.

 

We are enveloped by a system that resists the hustle, the action for the short-term. Because status quo is a comforting territory to be in. But patient, persistent and focused action can pay off.

 

The world is tumultuous. Urgency defeats emergency. The world needs your leadership. The journey of a thousand miles remember, begins with a single step.

 

Action precedes change. And as the as the seminal philosopher Marcus Aurelius quoted “ Universe is change. Life is just an opinion “.

 

ENDS

The Infinite Power of Finite Time!

Time is what we want most, but what we use worst: William Penn
We, as a culture, are yet to call time on the above reality.Though I have not read the book yet, I came across this Oliver Burkeman title ” Four Thousand Weeks “. That’s the number of weeks in the average lifespan. Some years ago, Dr Robert Cialdini wrote his seminal classic ‘ Principles of Persuasion ‘ in which he argued about The Scarcity Principle– Simply put, people want more of those things they can have less of.
Without meaning to read out the morbid act, let’s remind ourselves that we all have a finite amount of time- no matter whatever situation or stage of life we are in. If we are ready to wake up to this smell of the coffee, the temptation would be very high to extract the maximum, do more, zero in on efficiency hacks to up the ante and all and more of that. That said, if we aim to do that, we might be on the wrong track.
Most of us live with the stubborn idea that we’ll always have tomorrow. But sooner or later all of our tomorrows will run out. It is finite.
Let the above not become a debilitating thought. Rather, use that as an invigorating tool to design the life that you want to live. To distill the trivial many to focus on the vital few. To amp up courage to take the outrageous moonshots that you were afraid to take. To give you the spunk that can go down to your every bone.

Probably, the route to take would be the  ‘ disciplined pursuit of less but better‘. What author Greg McKeown calls ‘ Essentialism ‘.

 

We have: One life to live. One life to die. One life to learn and practice what you have learnt. One life to learn multiple skills, arts, hobbies, sports…multiple professions. One life to experience joy in what you perform. One life to share, give, pass on, teach and donate so that you die empty but Rich every which way.

 

“ The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry out their dream.”- so said Les Brown. And what a telling commentary that is on the ‘ ground reality ‘ .

 

Contemplating your own mortality can help you prioritize what’s truly important and live with greater purpose and meaning. Time to move the needle from living a life of endless efficiency and start living a life that really matters.

 

I had the good fortune to interview Todd Henry, author of the book ‘ Die Empty ‘  for BrandKnew and if you are interested you can watch the interview here .

 

ENDS

 

 

 

Placebo, take a bow!

 

To begin with a look at the definition of the noun Placebo:
– a medicine or procedure prescribed for the psychological benefit to the patient rather than for any physiological effect
– a substance that has no therapeutic effect, used as a control in testing new drugs
– a measure designed merely to humour or placate someone. A placebo is a prompt for our subconscious to do the hard work of healing our body, increasing our satisfaction or maximizing our performance
I am enamored by the last one as it ultimately serves us better.
Several years ago, on my first ever overseas trip, I carried back a pain balm for my grandmother who often suffered from severe ankle pains. It took exactly 90 odd seconds between my giving her the balm, her applying it and her claiming instant relief. The Doctor’s prognosis of her excess weight and varicose veins be damned.
In a make believe world, placebo does the hard part of well..making us believe. It’s manifestation of a slightly different lineage, with some tangibles thrown in.
Status roles are defined by the culture we live and function in. ‘People like us do things like this‘. Wine collectors, sneaker aficionados, pimple creams, energy drinks or herbal remedies all surf the placebo wave. As it creates maximum impact amongst the purveyors targeted.
We offer sub optimal credit to the stories in our lives and we seem to have persuaded ourselves that our brains don’t matter much. But, increasingly, we have increasing evidence to the contrary.
Stories are the salve, the balm, the therapy and our brains, powerful as they may be, might or might not be under our conscious control.
If you find a better domicile for our stories to reside(other than inside our heads), let me know. We can recalibrate the GPS. Till such time, let us live with our placebos.
If you want some inspiration on how placebos work, take a look at this link https://www.instagram.com/reel/Csorz4iPdrq/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading
The above is a link from a post shared by One Minute Bass (@oneminutebass) 
ENDS

Getting labellious!

 

Caveat: No, I don’t think there is a word called labellious, but I took the liberty of being rebellious.Yes, since there is a word called rebellious.

 

Since judging others is a full time profession for many, most of the world is a well employed place. Unemployment is only a myth. Though, the jury might be out on that one!!

 

” I am not an optimist. I am a realist. And my reality is that we live in a multi faceted, multicultural world. And maybe once we stop labeling ourselves, then maybe everyone else will “- Octavia Spencer

 

To me, labels were all about what we stuck on our notebooks and textbooks in school to establish ‘ ownership ‘ in the otherwise sea of sameness. When we grew up we were either at the giving or receiving end of labels like ‘ She is a prude ‘, ‘ He is an introvert ‘.’ Oh no, he is a stick in the mud ‘. ‘ She is a go-getter ‘. ‘ He is a rare talent ‘.

 

Then marketers entered the zeitgeist gleefully labelling people as ‘ Millennials ‘, ‘ Digital Natives ‘, ‘ Baby Boomers ‘ and what have you. Labelling makes ‘ targeting ‘ easier. Apparently!! That said, to me Demographics is Dead. RIP Demographics !

 

The thing with labels is that it can be both empowering and self-defeating. ‘I have tech phobia ‘. ‘ I am a misfit in social circles ‘. We are all multi-faceted at most times but the weight of a label buttonholes us into a default mode of the ‘ prescribed mode of conduct ‘. When the label description becomes the dictating narrative of our lives. The hunter becomes the hunted.

 

Modern day lexicon is not helping certainly. If everything is ‘ awesome ‘ as used by most digital natives in normal conversation, is anything? Not getting the latest fast fashion style at the brand store cannot be  ‘traumatic ‘. But it ends up being so. By attaching the label of “trauma” to run-of-the-mill challenges, we risk amplifying their significance, making them appear insurmountable, and potentially hindering our healing journey.

 

 

We are all nomads here. So, the way out is to take advantage of the fluidity of life and adapt accordingly. Labels need not come with permanent glue. Treat them like Post-It Notes. There today, not there tomorrow. You can stick them on and peel them off, as and when you please.

 

Show it who is the boss- you are the landlord, the label is only a fleeting tenant. Use them like tools and not get bound by them as rules.

 

Obsessing over your own labels stops you from being an authentic version of you. You’re living up to a label someone who doesn’t know you as much as you do has given you, which is pretty weird when you think about it.

 

As an aside, before I conclude, for those interested, Labelling theory was developed by Howard Becker and is most associated with the sociology of deviance.

 

ENDS

 

 

 

Writing It Right !

 

How do you get it write?

 

” Our notebooks give us away, for however dutifully we record what we see around us, the common denominator of all we see is always, transparently, shamelessly, the implacable ‘I.” —Joan Didion, “On Keeping a Notebook “.

 

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing said Benjamin Franklin. 

 

Write something. There is no greater agony than an untold story inside you. Write something. Then improve it. Then write something else.Then repeat it till such time you have enough matter to constitute a post. Then ship it out. Rinse and repeat the process. Throw caution to the winds and to things like ‘ writer’s block ‘.

 

On the freeway of consistent bad writing is the convenience store that comes up- that of good writing. Fuel up there. 

 

And as you do that, you will simplify, clarify and amplify your thinking and strengthen your stories. When you are writing, you are looking at your own freedom. Nothing more empowering than that.

 

 

Please yourself. Pick up a few words. Stick your neck out and string them like a necklace.Open with a question and don’t answer till the end. The world will wait for an answer..then read out the riot…write act. Rinse..repeat.

 

From writer’s block to writer’s blog. The Separation Anxiety that we have in our heads is only a myth.

 

” The first draft is you just telling yourself the story “- Terry Pratchett

 
Did you get it write?
ENDS

 

 

 

 

Are You Putting All Your X In One Basket? Y?

Do pardon me. For disintermediating the age old adage ” Putting all your eggs in one basket “. The X is just a chance I took with phonetic liberty.
If you put all your eggs in one basket, any fall will be a messy one. Any time you put all your eggs in one basket, you’re just one stumble away from catastrophe.
There are so many creators out there. And it’s a prosumer world, an increasing tribe of people who do both, i.e. consume and create content, art etc. And now what has become de rigueur, social media appears to have become the be all and end all of any content articulation, community engagement and community impacting. 
The number of platforms available is also tempting. The recent launch of Threads (Meta’s version of Twitter, now X) saw almost 100 Million sign ups within a matter of days. The new kid on the block was the hottest thing in the social media world. Even within its threadbare duration of existence.
Meanwhile, other social-media platforms are losing steam. Twitter users(and advertisers) have been leaving the platform in droves. Average engagement on Instagram has plummeted. Overall viewership on TikTok is down, and the company faces the possibility of an outright ban in the United States. Facebook is being referred to in the past tense already.
Change is the only constant. A lot of these social media shiny objects are losing steam. Sustainability is hard to come by beyond the thrill of the chase and the incidental afterglow. Remember MySpace, AOL Messenger, Netscape etc- from red hot, warm, lukewarm, cold, beyond back burner, to dead and buried.  All of them were huge, until they weren’t. Here today, gone tomorrow.
That said, a lot of brands still continue to lean into these platforms in the hope that they will deliver their manna from heaven and get them their place in the sun with their audiences. Lulled and lured by the convenience and promise of ‘ quick gains ‘. That’s meaningless ‘  sole searching ‘ – putting all your eggs solely in the social media basket. 
As you decide to fire from a social platform’s shoulder, because it has audiences at all times of the day or night, that freebie comes to you with a Faustian bargain. Which is you giving up control totally to the intermediary, the platform. This intermediary dictates who sees your posts and how often, and it can unilaterally change policies, tweak algorithms, and generally do whatever it wants—even if it puts an end to your business or influence.
Vanilla metrics don’t work. And engagements on social media are predominantly superficial.  A small statistic as a wake up call: Of the 95 million photos and videos posted every day on Instagram and the 500 million tweets shared every day, how many linger beyond a fraction of a second?
We look, like, and promptly forget. And yet, we keep chasing these fleeting ideas that have the shortest of lives.​ Gone before they are born. 
The way to go is to be a master of your space– create your own blog, your own newsletter, your own email list, your own website etc. The Great Resignation is happening from social media platforms. But nobody is giving up on email. Well written emails with the right subject lines can fetch you upwards of 50% open rates and a significant click through rate(CTR). Never will you get this kind of an engagement on any social media platform. Yes, the web and email seem unexciting. But time to put your money where your mouth is.
If the idea you have in mind is to make things last, run away from the latest fad. Seek things that age well. Ozan Varol calls it ” the George Clooney Effect* “.
The Gorge Clooney Effect is a term used to describe the phenomenon of people looking better as they age. It was named after actor George Clooney, who has often been described as looking more attractive as he ages.
How about aging as an asset rather than a liability?
 
ENDS