Some days it's hard to be a winner

I’m hurrying out of the house for a client for lunch when my phone lights up. 

It’s an email from a prospect I’ve been trying to pin down for ages. 

“Hi Francisco, the contract is signed!” 

BOOM!

If I don’t leave now I’m going to be late, so I write a quick response, send it and call the lift. 

I stick one of my ear buds in, but then the little charging box slips out of my fingers. 

I put out my foot to stop it from hitting the floor, but it opens on impact and the other ear bud spins away across the hallway—and falls through the stairwell.

I’m 7 floors up. 

I race down the stairs, hoping to see it in one of the landings; if it fell the whole way down it will be in a million pieces for sure.

There’s nothing on the 6th floor. Or the 5th. Nothing on the 4th. 3rd. 2nd. 1st. 

When I get to the ground floor I’m out of breath, and now I see… nothing. The floor is clear. 

“Is this yours?” the doorman asks. 

My ear bud is on his desk. In one piece. 

“I just found it on the floor,” he says. 

“Yeah, it… fell. I can’t believe it’s not completely destroyed. I wonder if…”

I put it on my ear, turn some music on and… it works. Perfectly. 

I walk towards my lunch meeting in a great mood, and arrive just on time. It feels like I can only win today. 

“There’s a reservation in the name of Colin,” I tell the waiter. 

“Ok, you can pick any table you want.”

While I sit there, I see the waiter checking his reservation book, one page then the next. He looks a little confused. 

I take a look at the menu, pop over to the bathroom to wash my hands, but when I come back Colin is still not here. 

“Huh. That’s weird. He’s always early.”

Then I get this odd feeling. I check my diary and there’s no mistake, I got the date and hour right. 

But then I check my messages with my client, and the last one says, 

“Ok to move our lunch to Wednesday? I’ll change the booking.” 

With a little thumbs up from me. 

Damn. 

I get up from the table, look at the waiter, and say, 

“You’ll never guess but—“

“Your booking is for tomorrow, isn’t it?”

“Yes… I guess… I’ll see you tomorrow then.” 

I have a ton of work to get through, and I’ve just wasted 30 mins getting here; now I have to walk all the way back, and do it all over again the next day…

Oh well. 

All that winning was going to spoil me anyway 😅

This is not a great story 

I recently told you how the way to capture story-worthy moments is to write down things that you’d want to share, and this is exactly what this was: as soon as it happened I messaged a couple of people about it. 

But the problem is that, even though the ear bud bit is surprising, and my lunch mistake is relatable, the rest is a bit… meh. There’s nothing really to sink your teeth into. 

By the end of it, I’m still the same, and that’s the issue. No change for the character, no change for the audience. 

That’s why it really isn’t a great story—but I won’t be offended if you disagree ;-)

Does that mean it shouldn’t be told? No, of course not. I’ve told it to a bunch of people. I’m telling you now. But I wouldn’t tell it on stage. I wouldn’t tell it for business. I wouldn’t tell it if I wanted to move anyone to action. 

And that’s ok. Not every thing that happens to us can be turned into a powerful story. We should still capture these moments, and tell them. 

If nothing else, it’s great practice for knowing what works, and what doesn’t. 

You can’t win… 

If you don’t know what losing looks like 🤘

-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 ;-)

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