In a now-famous pitch to someone he wanted to bring on board Apple in the early days, Steve Jobs said, “We are inventing the future….Come down here and make a dent in the universe.”
A fairly gargantuan vision, but because he held it tenaciously and with his characteristic bravado, he did it.
Imagine holding yourself to the same standard. How would you make a dent in the Universe? What would it take?
When we look through history, it seems that these kinds of leaps happen only once or twice a century. But our history was set in categorically slower times. We are now spinning through space at accelerated speed and universe-denting originality is happening more and more frequently. Who were we before the internet just twenty years ago? Before Google just 10 years ago? Before Facebook just 7 years ago? We have all been changed forever by these dents–in a very short period of time.
Is it possible that, because our globe is spinning through a time warp, such originality can happen every month?
How about for every person? Can we all make dents?
A Different Kind of Reality Check
Do you even want to, or are you content to change the world one person at a time? That’s cool. To each his own. However, Jobs would have snapped something nasty at you and sent you on your way for aiming too low; he only worked with those who wanted to bend time. But I’m not the nasty sort—so I will just suggest that perhaps you’re selling yourself short, falling asleep at the wheel your Soul gave you once upon a time.
If you are in the business of imparting knowledge, shifting thinking, altering behavior, healing bodies—and you do not use the powers vested in you to the extent of their potential, you’re seriously messed up. (Sorry, was channeling Jobs there for a minute.) But it is definitely time for a reality-distortion check.
Steve (I’ll be writing more about this another day) was known to live inside what his employees dubbed a “reality distortion field,” where no laws of physics, or any other laws for that matter, applied. He believed everything was possible without exception, things that did not exist in the known universe yet, and ignored all signs of impossibility.
Personally, I attribute the dent he made to this one character trait. So, it stands to reason that you want to adapt it, too, in order to spin your wheel as it was designed to be spun.
Deciding (for that’s all Jobs did) that everything is possible, and knowing that your wisdom and knowledge is there to make a dent in the universe and not the cushions of your desk chair—or why else even be here–the question is, how to do it?
The Strategy for Making This Kind of Impact
So, you don’t sell a tangible product like Apple; you sell intangible ideas. Therefore, your one-of-a-kind art is not (primarily) found in design and usability as Jobs was so fastidious about perfecting. Your art is in what you say. And it must cut a path. It must be different. This world is saturated with content; saturated with coaches, consultants, healers and therapists. You will only survive if what you say rises above them all.
And the design you must shape with meticulous care is a story. Stories captivate the imagination the way perfectly sculpted designs captivate the visual sense. But in your case, we’re not talking about your story, or the story of your company/business, or the story of your clientele—the kinds of stories you’re being told to develop.
As an expert, you must offer a Teaching Story. An artfully formed narrative that teaches what no one else is teaching. This is the ultimate in education-based marketing.
To do this, you must first know your market—really, really well. When Jobs’ mentor, Mike Markkula, aligned with the original motley crew, he wrote a one-page paper entitled, “The Apple Marketing Philosophy,” that emphasized just three points that went on to define the company forever. The first was empathy—“an intimate connection with the feelings of the customer.” He wrote, “We will understand their needs better than any other company.”
What followed? A dent in the universe. Your teaching story will reflect your understanding of your market better than any one else. Even better than they understand themselves. (Channeling Steve again.)
And your teaching story will go one better. It will wrap your market into an emotionally tight tribal community, where powerful unity and affinity exists among like-minds.
Then, the drama of the story begins. It quietly discusses what they always believed to be true; what they have always accepted as true–in society, their industry, culture, or thinking. And just as they’re relaxing into the reminder of this natural order of things, your teaching story slams into suspense, surprising them with the fact that this truth is out-dated, decrepit, and ineffectual. It suspends them there, as any good chase scene does, detailing the problems with the prevailing paradigm, sinking them deeper and deeper into the dire outcome of staying in the reality they’ve adapted for so long.
Then, in gallops the knight in shining armor to save them: your vision of a “new paradigm,” with a brand new landscape, a brand new solution. (This is your one-of-a-kind brand identity.) And it includes a vision for them as a tribe—the legacy they, as like-minded peers, are here to unfold together.
This is when you peel away from the pack of ordinary experts; away from your “good enough” mentality and acceptable bank account—and become a bona fide Inspired Thought Leader, with content worthy of a TED talk; worthy of cutting a path in the publishing field…worthy of making a dent in the universe.
Why? Because in your Teaching Story, you are “inventing the future”!
Does that seem impossible?
Then press the button on your reality distortion field and step in–quickly!
Everything is possible.
And why else even be here if you–with something to teach–aren’t going to dent the universe?
All of this is especially possible if you reach out to me. This is what I do. I develop Inspired Thought Leaders who have one-of-a-kind Teaching Stories that cut a path through the nonsense and noise. Bold, creative, thought-provoking, paradigm-breaking stories so their market respects them, loves them and buys them.
It’s Time to Grab That Wheel, Look Out On the Future and Know You Can Invent It!
Read how I do this with experts by clicking here, and then reach out to me at the bottom of that page. We’ll get on a call and start inventing the future!
Richard Branson