Road to the RED DOT
CONNECTION! The Magic of Life

 Someone once made a comment about me, part admiringly, part sarcastically. He said, “Ravi can tell a great story.” The implied subtext in it was that the telling of stories is nice but just a form of a con. Not really honest in a truly ennobling way, but really good to marvel at or indulge your afternoon away.

I am calling that out as the greatest lie that could ever be foisted upon humanity and this is why. The ability to tell impactful stories is the single greatest determinant to success in any field. Let me explain.

Before you open your mouth to speak the first sentence of your story or before you write the first line in a proposal, you have to know how to connect with the person you want to tell it to. In every situation where I have heard someone speak derisively about storytellers, when I look I invariably find a person who is unable to perform that most basic of human activities…. Connection.

The ability to connect begins before you speak and before the first written word is read. In the case of a book, the work of connection begins with the design of the cover. The choice of the title. How it is formatted. What is the imagery of the front cover. How is the back cover designed. How is the inside jacket designed….. All of this strives to establish connection with the reader BEFORE the first line is read. In the case of speaking, connection begins with the manner of your gait as you walk on the stage or into a room. Your posture, the way you stand. How you hold your head. How you lock the listener’s gaze.

Then you speak or you write and your words consolidate that connection and draws the listener or reader into your world.

Why is connection important. The essence of human life is the act of connection. A person who is skilled in connection has the single greatest ability to succeed in any task they undertake. Storytelling is essential to connecting. Great storytelling allows for great speaking and it emerges out of connection, it creates connection and it subsides in connection.

Experience resides in feeling and feeling resides in connection, and connection resides within storytelling. Storytelling therefore becomes essential to the domain of being human. It is the essence of life itself. To be called a great storyteller is to receive the greatest honor that can be bestowed upon a person. It is a statement that here stands a person who can connect and make you feel life itself.







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