6 Reasons Why Your Story Could Be the Most Powerful Thing in the World

Prologue: The Forgotten Years Of Henry Dunant

The world has forgotten Henry Dunant. The once-celebrated Swiss banker was bankrupt, ashamed, and condemned by society. Many family members and friends who were left broke because of his doings, vowed never to speak to him again. Dunant was living in a modest nursing home, sleeping on a spare bed, few people even knew he was still alive. Georg Baumberger, a German journalist, happened to meet Dunant while taking a walk in the city of Heiden, Switzerland. Surprised to find the once well-known figure at this state, Baumberger decided to write an article capturing Dunant’s unbelievable life story. The article became an international sensation, Henry Dunant’s life changed yet again.

1. Oh Sure, Now I Remember

A few years ago I was speaking with Eran Katz, an Israeli Guinness Book of World Records record holder in the field of memory stunts. He could recite, from memory, a five-hundred digit number that was read to him once. A few moments passed, and Eran recited it again, this time end to front. He did all that with only 4 mistakes. “Is it some kind of supernatural gift?”, I asked. “No”, he answered swiftly, “there’s a system”. Eran trained himself to quickly transform numbers into a story. “This part is an elephant eating garlic, dropping money into a rubbish bin when a young goat comes by, eating brown beef from a can”, he explained in an interview, filmed standing in front of a whiteboard with three long rows of numbers he just memorized.

It’s hard to remember information, but hard to forget a story.

2. I’ll Buy That Story

In 2009, Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn purchased 200 items on eBay for an average sum of $1.25 apiece. They then sent the items to 200 writers, each wrote a fictional story relating to the item he/she received. The items were then reposted on eBay with the newly written story appearing in the description box. The results were mind-boggling. The items were sold for a staggering $8,000. This has been since known as the ‘significant object experiment’. A perfect example of another great power stories hold.

Stories add value.

3. A Myth About an Apple

Two geeky, young, misfits are assembling a new device at a family house garage in Los Altos. A few years pass and this small operation turns into one of the largest, most influential companies in the world. It’s a great story, isn’t it? The birth story of Apple inc. has become an inspiration for generations of entrepreneurs, It defined a whole industry. This story is one of the reasons Apple has a reputation for being young, rebellious, and daring. It is one of the reasons, to this day, Apple is considered by many as the underdog, the misfit, the one that is fighting against the system — all while being one of the largest companies on earth. This image isn’t just misleading now, it turned out it wasn’t accurate even then. In 2014, Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founder, said in an interview that the garage is "a bit of a myth". It doesn’t really matter, stories are stronger than reality.

Stories shape the way we see the world (even if they are not 100% true).

4. Turn On the TV, I Want to Watch This

I once had a talk with a very senior media executive who just signed a deal to co-produce and broadcast, in prime time, a reality-TV show in which ordinary people cook together. “It’s a bit of a risk, isn’t it?”, I asked, “you really think people would want to watch other regular people cook on TV?”. His answer was confident, “The participants’ stories are amazing, it doesn’t really matter if they are telling them while cooking, singing or knitting”. It’s true, good stories make good television. Because of stories, we can find ourselves identifying with a person cooking a gourmet meal on TV while we’re eating a bag of chips. Because of stories, we can tune in every week to find out what happened to a person we have never met from a country we have never visited. Because of stories, we can see ourselves in a small alien from outer space.

Stories are universal, they can work anywhere.

5. Trust Me, I’m a Storyteller

The next point I want to make about the power of a story is also my favorite. When you tell a story you guide your readers through a curved path. The storyteller takes his audience by the hand and leads them while they are being almost blindfolded, and slowly beginning to see. For a few moments, the readers give the storyteller their complete and full attention, and more important their trust. The readers trust the storyteller to guide them safely and confidently, to know the way, and to reach a worthwhile end. If you manage to do that, you have earned their confidence.

Stories build trust. Stories build bridges.

6. The Re-Birth of Henry Dunant

And so, in the hope of sharing this bond and gaining your trust let me lead you to the end of our journey, the life-changing article that brought Henry Dunant back from the dead and back to the center stage as one of the most influential figures of our time. Georg Baumberger published his piece named “Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross”. People were genuinely shocked. Dunant, a world-known philanthropist who inspired the Geneva convention and founded the “Red Cross” Organization, a person who devoted his life trying to make the world a better place, was left with nothing and no one. The article was printed and published all over Europe, Dunant was again remembered and celebrated. Six years passed and Dunant became the first-ever laureate of the Nobel peace prize. He donated his earnings to charity, among others to the nursing home in which he found refuge. All with the one condition that there will always be at least one bed available for the poor.

Stories can change lives. Stories can change the world.