A year ago, a good friend was sharing a story with me about how a mobile technology entrepreneur, whom I’ll reference as Chase for privacy reasons, transcended his business with one phone call. Chase was a diehard fan of his city’s beloved NFL team and because my friend had played 9 years for that team, Chase asked for an introduction to their former Hall Of Fame Quarterback. He had the idea of offering him a board seat with his start-up to leverage his star-power. My friend not only made the introduction, but he arranged for the QB to meet in Chase’s office the following week. Although he didn’t know much about mobile technology, the QB agreed to join the board as an advisor. When he asked what his role would be, Chase was so in awe that he told him to “just be yourself and be a sounding board for me.”. The QB refused to be a figurehead and wanted to make a meaningful contribution, so he asked Chase to make a wish list of his top 10 dream clients. Chase made his list and as the QB asked how he should position the company – Chase suggested that he watch a short video about how the technology had brought together a community after a devastating earthquake. 90 seconds into that video, the QB was in tears and as he started to reach out to that dream list, he simply shared the story he took away from the video. Within a few month, all 10 dream clients had agreed to back the start-up and after 9 month, a prominent Silicon Valley company offered them an acquisition offer they couldn’t refuse. That’s the power and role of story in business and in our daily lives. In this engaging conversation, I discuss how each of us is – Wired For Story – with the brilliant author and story consultant, Lisa Cron –
