A failed business pitch taught movie mogul Peter Guber to start telling purposeful stories.
Golden State Warriors co-owner Peter Guber had a lot to celebrate earlier this week as he joined the players on stage in front of adoring fans at Oakland’s Oracle Arena. The Warriors had beaten the Cavaliers in Game 5 to capture their second NBA championship in three years.
Guber, the chairman of Mandalay Entertainment, knows a great story when he sees it. “Stories have a unique power to move people’s hearts,” Guber wrote in his 2011 book, Tell to Win.
Guber tells stories in business and uses the building blocks of narrative to answer the media’s questions. One building block of great storytelling is analogy. In an interview for USA Today about signing Kevin Durant before the start of the season, Guber told the following story:
“My grandmother made great chocolate chip cookies. A couple of years later my grandmother added some walnuts, and they were really great. And then my father said he liked coconut, so he put some coconut in them. Then, someone added raisins, and it was mush.”
“So is Kevin Durant the walnuts?” the reporter asked.
“No,” Guber said. “Kevin Durant is sweetness… He’s the perfect alchemy for success. He’s a great partner, a great leader, a great contributor, a great teammate and he’s humble.”
The point: More isn’t necessarily better for team chemistry. It’s only when you have the right mix of ingredients that the magic happens.
A failed pitch taught Guber the power of storytelling.
As a movie producer, Guber knows how to tell a story on the big screen–but it took a failed business pitch to help him see the power of storytelling in other aspects of his business.
Guber vividly recalls making an unsuccessful pitch for a minor league baseball park in Las Vegas. Entering the meeting, Guber was wildly confident–he had just financed and produced mega-hits such as Batman, Rain Man and Bugsy. Armed with “killer data,” he was sure he’d mesmerize the mayor and city council.
He struck out.
After much soul-searching Guber figured out what he had done wrong. “You forgot to tell a story, stupid!” he wrote in his book. “I’d thrown a barrage of raw facts at [mayor] Goodman–data, statistics, records, forecasts–but I didn’t organize them in any way to engage his emotions.”
Everyone in business shares one goal: to persuade someone to think or feel a certain way and to take action. Guber calls it “purposeful storytelling” and it’s the secret sauce that moves people to action.
Purposeful stories have a goal, a call to action and it’s that purpose that must be emotional. Guber misfired in his pitch because he aimed for his audience’s wallets instead of their hearts.
Aim for hearts, not wallets.
Here’s a telling passage from Guber’s book:
“To succeed, you have to persuade others to support your vision, dream, or cause. Whether you want to motivate your executives, organize your shareholders, shape your media, engage your customers, win over investors, or land a job, you have to deliver a clarion call that will get your listeners’ attention, emotionalize your goal as theirs, and move them to act in your favor. You have to reach their hearts as well as their minds–and this is just what storytelling does.”
Guber harps on the following theme over and over: If you can’t tell it, you can’t sell it. Today, he credits much of his success over a 40-year career to his ability to persuade customers, employees, shareholders, media, and partners through storytelling.
According to Guber: “Stories have a unique power to move people’s hearts, minds, feet, and wallets in the storyteller’s intended direction.”
Success leaves clues. Sports analysts will sift through the Warriors road to the championship for clues on what makes for a winning sports team. Meanwhile, Guber is offering the secret to success in business and entrepreneurship.
If you can’t tell it, you can’t sell it–and it’s best told through story.