“Dad, I didn’t brush my teeth today after lunch.”
I’m halfway through dinner with my kids when Alice tells me that. She was away with school all day.
“Baby, you know you need to. The dentist said you can’t risk getting food stuck in your retainer.”
“I know, but our day trip was super exciting, we did so much that there was no time to for that.”
“Couldn’t you at least rinse your mouth with water like your mom told you to?”
“There was no place to spit!”
I raise my eyebrows at her.
“There wasn’t a single bathroom anywhere?”
“Oh. Yeah.”
I sense this is the moment for some invaluable dad wisdom.
“Alice, you can either find problems, or you can find solutions.”
She rolls her eyes at that. As soon as dinner is done, I tell her to go brush her teeth.
A few minutes later, she comes back, and I ask if she wants some yogurt for dessert.
“I do, but… won’t I have to brush my teeth again?”
“You sure will.”
“Dad! Why did you tell me to brush them right after dinner then??”
“Sometimes I prefer to make a point than make sense.”
I really do 😅
You probably have a good reason, but…
When it comes to why people don’t tell stories, I’ve heard every excuse in the book:
"I don’t have any stories"
“I suck at storytelling”
“I don’t know what story to tell”
“They just want me to get to the point”
Don’t get me wrong, I know that behind those excuses are valid challenges that many people just don’t know how to overcome. If storytelling was easy, more people would be doing it.
It's not easy, but it's also nowhere near hard enough to justify how little storytelling you hear in the professional world. My 9-year old may roll her eyes, but it’s true: you can either find problems, or you can find solutions.
The knowledge is out there if you want to find it — and you don’t even have to go looking for it:
You already have me ;-)
So what’s your exc… reason for not telling more stories? Hit reply and let me know, I’d love to help out!
Sometimes I do prefer to make a point than make sense…
But I always prefer to share my invaluable (storytelling) wisdom🤘
-Francisco
Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
Getting clarity through your story to stand out from all the other coaches, speakers and entrepreneurs out there
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
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.
