Storytelling

If you want to tell a story, ask yourself: Does it contain a five-second moment? A moment of true transformation? The five-second moment may be difficult to find. You may have to dig for it. I was more than three years into my storytelling career before I finally told “This Is Going to Suck.”

Think of it this way: If we remove Tanzania from the story, is there still a story worth telling? If the answer is no, then the person probably doesn’t have a story. If the answer is yes, they might have something worth telling.

Understanding that stories are about tiny moments is the bedrock upon which all storytelling is built, and yet this is what people often fail to understand when thinking about a story. Instead, they believe that if something interesting or incredible or unbelievable has happened to them, they have a great story to tell.