What's your story?

I was listening to a podcast with Yuval Noah Harari.

The guy who wrote Sapiens.

He was talking about the power of stories.

His contention is money is the greatest story humans ever invented.

Because we all believe it.

We may not like it. We may not like the imbalance of the story. (Or we may very much appreciate the imbalance of it.) But we all understand it.

He then started talking about bitcoin and my eyes kind of glazed over for a second. But I did love the idea of the power of stories.

Take monsters under the bed.

It’s more than just a story for kids.

We are biologically wired for it.

We are biologically wired to believe in stories of dangerous things in the night. Like vampires. Or aliens. Or monsters.

Because, when we were a much younger species, roaming the savannah in our small tribal bands, sleeping in the open and wondering how Barry managed to forget how to make fire, again, and we’ll have to go begging for embers from the Smiths, again – because, back then, there really were monsters in the night.

Lions. And cheetahs. And leopards.

All waiting, stealthy and creeping, in the night. Looking for young children to take.

The imprint those cats had on our psyche still exists.

It was a deep truth.

And the stories simply remind us of the emotions we carry – the fear, the uncertainty, the anxiety.

Something to remember next time you need to write something.

The more your story connects to a deep truth, the more likely people are to believe it.

The deep truths. Fear. Joy. Anxiety. Relief. Wrath. Greed. Love. Compassion.

Understand the deeper emotions and connect your story to those drivers.

It’s more likely to turn your story into money.

And we can all live happily ever after.