“I was walking on the dock. Alan was walking towards me. There was a girl in between us, maybe around 15, walking towards him and away from me.
“All of a sudden, the girl seemed to lie down. She hit the stern line, rolled around it, and fell into the water.
“I didn’t understand what was going on. But I saw Alan take off his shirt and throw his cell phone on the ground and dive in after her.
“The girl was sinking. He pulled her up to the surface and I pulled her back out on the dock.
“The girl had had an epileptic seizure. Since she was walking towards Alan, he saw her and realized what was going on in time. She would have drowned in a few moments more.”
A few nights ago, I found myself in the company of a bunch of sailboat skippers.
At first, it was like they were speaking a different language. But after a while, in between the industry jargon and the inside jokes and the unfamiliar names, I slowly began to grasp what was going on.
They were playing a game. Like a card game, but with stories.
One skipper would tell a story — for example, a terrible experience working for a charter company. Then somebody would tell another story on the same topic.
“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” was the implied criterion.
Eventually, one of the skippers would pull out the trump card — a story so good that nobody else could top it.
There would be a few moments of quiet appreciation. That skipper had won the round, and his standing in the group seemed to rise a bit.
Then a new round would start, with another topic. (The story above of the girl and the seizure was part of the “near-death experiences” round. It wasn’t the trump card, it turned out.)
Of course, skippers are not unique in playing this game. I was an outsider in this group, so it was easy to see what was going on. But we all do this, all the time.
Stories, jokes, explanations… they are social currency.
They help you play the game. Maybe even win a round. Get a few moments of appreciation… and have your standing rise a bit.
So in case you’re wondering where this is all going, let me give you some industry jargon and maybe a familiar name.
If you want free traffic, then this same process can work in your favor.
From what I can tell, all you have to do is put something new out there… and make sure it’s big enough to beat the cards that came before it.
As an example, take Rich Schefren in the Internet marketing space. That space is full of outsized claims — “How an Oklahoma farm boy cracked the online code to earn $1,123,234.23 in 0.1221 minutes.”
Eventually, no such claim becomes any bigger than any of the others.
So Rich created a new story, which could beat all the cards that had been thrown down on the table till then. “You are an opportunity seeker,” Rich said, “and you will never get where you want to go by continuing on that path.”
Result?
Millions of downloads of Rich’s Internet Business Manifesto. Not through ad spend. Not through SEO. Not through the manual labor of going on stage to speak the gospel. But entirely through the efforts of other people, playing a game like I described above.
This is not how-to advice. You can’t take this and use it to come up with an idea that will get shared.
But it is a test you can apply to an idea you’ve already got.
Maybe your idea doesn’t pass the skipper trump card test. It can still be successful. You’ll just have to push it out into the world, and you might have to spend money on ads.
But if you don’t like pushing, or you got no money for ads, then you can come up with more ideas. And more. Until you find one that does pass the skipper trump card test. Because…
You want to give your market value?
This is value. Not how-to advice. But social currency they can use to benefit themselves… and indirectly, to benefit you also. After all, you’re the house. And the house always wins.
By the way, I’ve got casino. Wonderful games, free to play. Bring your friends Would you like to join for a few rounds? Here’s the secret door in.