StoryWorthy
Matthew Dicks
Summary
Matthew discusses how to construct compelling stories, which if you think about it, is central to almost every conversation we have.
Rating: 4/5
Notes
Your story must reflect change over time
Don’t tell drinking or vacation stories
Don’t tell other people’s stories. Tell your version of them
If you wouldn’t tell your story at a dinner table, don’t tell it
If you had to tell a 5 minute story from what happened today, what would it be?
- It requires commitment and faith. Trust the process
Crash and burn - free flow writing (spend 15 minutes doing this)
- You must not get attached to any one idea
- You must not judge any thought that appears in your mind
- Don’t allow the pen to stop moving
First, last, best, worst prompt
All great stories tell the story of a give second moment in that person’[s life
It’s never about the big moment but the moments that forever changed you
Ask yourself where the story ends and what is the opposite of that? That’s the beginning. Change is key
The first idea is rarely the best idea
Start the story as close to the end as possible
Try to start your story with forward movement wherever possible
Don’t start by setting expectations
13 rules for a commencement speech:
- Don’t compliment yourself
- Be self-deprecating only if it’s real
- Don’t ask rhetorical questions
- Offer one bit of granular wisdom, one both applicable and memorable
- Don’t cater any part of the speech to the parents
- Make your audience laugh
- Never mention weather
- Speak as if you’re friends
- Emotion is good
- Don’t tell them what the world will be like
- Never quote the dictionary
- Don’t use other people’s quotes
- Finish your speech in less than the allotted time
Every story must have an elephant - the large and obvious thing
- Make your audience think they’re on path and trick them into another
The backpack: increase the audience’s anticipation of an event
- Make the audience wonder and make them experience the same emotion as you
- Their most effective when plans don’t work
Breadcrumbs: hint at a future event but only enough to keep the audience guessing
Hourglass: when the audience knows what’s coming, make them wait
Crystal balls: false predictions made by the storyteller to see if it’s true
Omit certain parts of the story
Audiences don’t want redemption
Compress your story
Change the order of the story to fit the narrative
Create a movie in the mind of your audience
- Always provide a physical location for every moment of the story
- Give every scene a location
Instead of using ‘and’ to connect stories, use ‘but’ and ‘therefore;
The negative is better than the positive when storytelling
For big stories, you must find small relatable moments everyone can appreciate
Always try and say less
The key is bringing out emotion in people is surprised
Start with a laugh
End your stories w/ heart, something bigger than a laugh
Your 5 second moment must focus on one thing
Ask yourself in your stories why you do the things you do
Shift tenses in your stories but start with the present so people feel like they’re there
People love underdog stories
Don’t ask rhetorical questions, don’t address the audience, no props
Don’t swear or use profanity in your blog
Never compare people in stories to celebrities
Don’t memorize your story: first lines, last lines and scenes
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Free E-book download here
Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
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Free E-book download here
