I was thinking about salesmanship. On an episode of the Lex Fridman podcast I heard someone (Microsoft CTO) talking about what's necessary to effectively organize a group of over several hundred people. This person said that conventional methods of management, incentives rewards and punishments and heirarchies, only work up to a certain point, and when a group gets large enough, it requires different methods of management. There are many people who live on this planet who excellently organize groups of thousands of people to achieve a goal. What this person on the podcst said was that the most important trait for a leader of a massive group like that to have to have is a mastery of storytelling.And then it ocurred to me that storytelling might be the fundamental skill that drives all naviagation of the human world to speak.
A salesman for example, one who is truly an excellent salesman, is effectively a storyteller. This person is tasked with making an agreement. Their job is to make sure the agreement happens, and the more creative and charismatic they are, the better they will be. The best salesman understand the value of their product. They know who is looking to buy. And from there, they tell a story to persuade the buyer into accepting the terms of the deal.
Persuasion is not a dirty word here. Is it wrong to persuade a friend to avoid a toxic lover? Is it wrong to persuade your child to try something new even when it's scary? Persuasion has to do with giving someone a glimpse of something they weren't previously aware of.This is critically important. When a salesman truly loves his or her work, it is because they see it as an act of service. When you sell someone something they need, you're helping them, and consenquently, thankful to them for helping you in return.
If someone doesn't trust that they should buy from you, it is for good reason. Any smart buyer should. Thus the challenge of telling the story of why the buyer and seller would benefit from the sale is appropriately difficult. It is a fair game, when played fairly. And when the dance is done excellently, both dancers feel the benefit, and are inclined to dance together even more. This is how business relationships emerge, which are the foundation of any strong community. A place where you can trust and are thankful for people who have different lives than you.
The best stories move people. I am moved when I hear how someone on hard times found a way to better ones. I am moved by stories of failure and loss. I am moved by stories of struggle. The car commercials on tv are trying to show people not what they are buying but "who they can be" if they buy that. But we've all heard that story before. And odds are, if you've heard the story before, the person telling it is using it to express something !other! than what they really mean. After all the truth is stranger than fiction. So when I hear someone say some really strange shit, I get the hunch they really mean it. Because why would they say it otherwise.
Passion is a precious resource. Passion has more potential energy than Standard Oil. Passion is what allows people to transcend their limits. You can get everything right on paper, you can have all the money in the world, be the best the biggest, the first, most beloved,the underiest underdog, want it more than anybody, and still lose.
so how does one WIN? how does one do the impossible?
"I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing. And when the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face like some rhino hunters I know or Belmonte, who is truly brave, it is because they love with sufficient passion to push death out of their minds. Until it returns, as it does to all men. And then you must make really good love again. Think about it.”
That is how much I love films. That is how much I love computers, records, bicycles, cars, founders, engineers, artists and builders. And that is the ACE IN THE HOLE. I transcend my current limits every single day because of this. I can take any failure. I've got that. I never see any circumstance I'm in as being impossible. because of that. External manipulations never work on me anymore, I'm too confident my passion is more valuable than anything any mortal could lord over me. It's there when I'm alone, so loneliness does not scare me.
If the world were a place where all human energy was used in the most efficient way with maximum benefit to humanity, eveyone would be doing work that they loved more than anything. Anythin less is simply not worth it.
Sit down art students, I'm not talking to you. This does not mean ok I will make stickers for a living.
Real artists work hard risk failure all the time endure rejection all of it. And then they go and survive. A real artist is not ashamed to work a shitty job. A real artist is not "waiting til the day their dream becomes a reality" A real artist is the person who is living the dream. A real artist is the person who's thankful for their shitty job because they can live to try to paint another day. Only in that fire is passion forged. So passion is a resource and smart people understand this and protect it like gold because it is. Sorry I should say smart people who get it. A small group of people. Most folks are drifters. Drifting from here to there making most of their desicions not based on what makes them feel alive, but what they fear.
It's a bad strategy in the long run, especially if you're in competition with others. Because the folks driven by passion, are just going to win, plain and simple. They've been doing a kind of training you don't know nothin about.
-cheo