"STORIES ARE THE BUILDING BLOCK OF CULTURE" - Seth Godin

Hi,

a while back, I got an email from a cool guy named Seth Godin. He talked about something called "Decoding 'Story'." It's really important to know how powerful storytelling can be. If you learn to tell great stories, you can actually change people's perspectives!

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Quote - Seth Godin: "Decoding 'Story'"

“Marketers like to talk about the story we tell. And non-marketers imagine that we’re referring to Goldilocks and other ‘once upon a time’ moments. Because stories are the basic building block of culture, it’s difficult to see the nuance in this simple word." 

"A new saw might have a story. A home woodworker isn’t cutting wood for a living–it’s a hobby. When a new saw from Festool comes out, the thoughtful design plants a seed for the home woodworker. From that moment on, every cut with the old saw feels like a compromise or even an insult.”

"Bottled water is a story. In countries where the water isn’t regularly safe to drink, there’s the simple, practical story of not getting sick."

To understand this idea better, let's think about what Brian McDonald's says a story is: 

"Stories are the telling or retelling of a series of events leading to a conclusion."

Why are stories so important for a culture? 

Well, they're like the bricks that build our culture's house. Stories help our culture to keep going strong. They're like lessons we learn from all our adventures and experiences. Stories are conclusions. 

Brian McDonald says it perfectly, that stories are about survival information.

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If we tell stories, then culture survives. But NEVER forget what Uncle Ben told Peter Parker in Spider-Man (2002):

 "With great power comes great responsibility."

Or think of it this way:

With great stories comes great responsibility for culture.

Best,

André