Today I’d like to tell you a fable and before you run away…
I want to highlight that this fable can be very valuable and worthwhile to you. At least if you write regular emails or if you tell stories to persuade or sell. So let me jump into it:
A rooster was pecking his way through the manure. Click — his beak hit on something hard. “Why, it’s a diamond,” said the rooster. “Such a precious thing. To somebody else, it might be worth a fortune. But it does me no good. I’d much rather have a grain of barley instead.”
And the moral is:
Impractical, luxury items are foolish. They offer no help when your stomach is empty.
Agreed? Agreed.
Except…
Perhaps the moral is this:
The finest, most valuable things are wasted on those who cannot appreciate them.
Umm… who’s right?
You probably know this already, but a single story can have many morals. So why not use the story many times in many ways?
I’m telling this to you as much as to myself. Because I’ve written over a thousand of these emails to date. Some of them contain great stories that I “spent” to illustrate a specific idea. Silly.
So the moral is:
If you write regular emails or if you have to persuade or sell to earn your barley… then start collecting your stories. Even the ones you’ve told before. You never know how you will be able to use them in the future… to impress a new moral on set of roosters who finally appreciate your value.
I’ll be back tomorrow with another story and another moral. Well, the story might be the same. In any case, if you’d like to hear more from me, sign up to my newsletter here.