Money is the most successful story ever told.

I am fascinated by messaging and meaning making. We do that in a very subtle way using the language syntax and even in legalese. From storybooks, through to films, comics, songs and even advertising. Storytelling and messaging is everywhere.

Stories make living more meaningful and almost become capsules of history which travel through time. We live finite human lives but stories can live much longer and evolve over generations and regions.

I agree with Yuval Noah Harari that money is the most successful story ever told. Even more successful that politics and religion.

Money in the form of pieces of paper or electronic information passing between computers and networks around the world has a fascinating grip over the human mind.

So why has the story of money become so successful? I believe it has happened because of the following reasons:

1. Money is synonymous with trust. And the exchange of money is the exchange of trust.
2. Money is the simplest story humans have collectively agreed on.
3. Due to the simplicity of money, it becomes easier for humans to give their own meaning and spin to the story of money, depending on the lens they see it through, which could be their culture, socio-economic status or values.
4. Accumulating money could symbolise accomplishment. Lack of it could mean ill fate or lack of trying.
5. Exchange of money for a service symbolises a task well done or a product produced to a high degree of satisfaction.
6. Money also helps us measure our productivity on an individual, national and global scale.
7. The symbolism associated with money helps us condense trust into an image associated with that money system.