It's ok to be a terrible person

“Dad, my belly hurts.”

I’m 10 years old, and I’m spending the weekend at my father’s. 

“That’s not good. I guess something you ate must not have agreed with you.”

“I don’t know… Can you give me that medication you have?”

“Well… maybe. How bad is it?”

“It’s really bad.”

“Hm. Ok.”

He walks off and I just sit there, bent over, clutching my stomach. 

A few minutes go by. He’s still not back.

“Dad? Dad!!”

“I’m here, calm down.”

“Where’s the medication?”

“You see, the thing is… this medication has opium, which is a really strong drug.”

“So I shouldn’t take it?”

“No, that’s not it. It’s just that… they don’t sell it anymore. This is the last bottle I have…”

“Daaaaaad!”

“Alright, alright.”

He pours what looks like endless drops of this yellow liquid into a glass of water. 

It tastes terrible. 

But in a few minutes I feel better. My belly doesn’t hurt anymore. 

I feel relaxed. Happy. Not a care in the world. 

As I grow up, every time I have a stomachache I remember that day, and resent my dad a little. 

Who would even consider withholding medication from a kid to keep it for themselves?? 

Now I’m a father. 

I don’t have the last legal bottle of opium at home, but I do have two small children. 

There are some days… when I completely understand my dad 🫣

We are still the same and live…

Humans are complicated. We often feel very conflicted between what we should do and what we want to do. Even if we usually do “the right thing,” that doesn’t mean we never consider the alternative.  

And that's alright: inside your head, it's ok to be a terrible person.

That conflict is incredibly relatable–and can also be very funny. Here are a few situations that make for great story material: 

• A weird or terrible thing you almost said or did

• A weird or terrible thing you actually said or did–but you didn’t intend to

• Someone behaving in a way that is completely mysterious to you 

• As in the story above, someone behaving in a way that seems strange or awful–but you can relate to it now 

…Just like our parents did 

The last situation I listed there is the content of many conversations between my friends and me: how our parents behaved compared to what we do now. 

Sometimes what they did seems completely crazy, and sometimes… less so 😅

Being a human can be challenging. We don’t always understand how others behave, and we often don’t even understand ourselves. 

Stories are a great way to explore that. 

And if they also make you laugh… 

There’s nothing terrible about that 🤘

-Francisco 

Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Getting clarity through your story to stand out from all the other coaches, speakers and entrepreneurs out there 

2. If you dream of speaking on the Red Dot, take this Scorecard and instantly discover how likely your idea is to be accepted by a TED-style organizing committee

3. If you (or your team) got any storytelling challenges, I’m sure there’s something we can do together ;-)

Thanks for reading! Reply any time.