When you are communicating your story to your target audience or customers whether it be via blog, Instagram post, Facebook Updates, or face to face it will be natural at first to think you are the hero of the story and someone else is the guide in your story.
It is true. In your story you are the Hero in your own story, and someone was a guide in your life who helped you get to where you are.
But the problem is that your audience doesn’t care about you. Your audience cares about themselves and their own problems. No one is sitting around wondering how you became so successful–they are asking, “How can I be successful?”
Here is your challenge (if you choose to accept): frame yourself as the Guide in your story. Become the person who helps others (your audience) to become hero. Take yourself out of the lime light and become the coach on the sidelines that causes the discouraged player to overcome and win the game.
Imagine Ahmed’s story re-written so that Ahmed was the guide, not the hero.
Ahmed: The GUIDE Story
Abdulla woke up. It was an ordinary day . . . Breakfast. Commute to work. Nothing memorable.
But then it happened… Abdulla’s world came crashing in, again. Abdulla had a problem–every day Abdulla would come to his office and was exerting all of his energy putting out fires, and managing those who were meant to be managing the company.
Communication was a mess. His office was filled with drama. His energy was consumed by meaningless tasks that failed to improve the company.
The path way of success had become increasingly foggy.
\Abdulla needed a system. A plan. A strategy that he could implement that would give him returns three, five, and ten years from now instead of chasing short term dollars, quarter after quarter.
There was only one person Abdulla knew to call: Ahmed.
Abdulla picked up the phone and rang Ahmed.
As the phone rang Abdulla nervously waited. He knew he needed an outside set of eyes to cut through the clutter.
Ahmed picked up. Listened, and they set up a time to meet and develop a repeatable system to allow Abdulla to focus on the important work that will build the company tomorrow, instead of merely fighting the urgent, but unimportant, things of today.
As Abdulla hung up the phone he felt relieved. He felt a sense of hope and expectation. He knew it wouldn’t be a simple path or easy journey–but he, maybe for the first time, that knew he wasn’t in it alone.
In this story, the spotlight is not on Ahmed. Yet, we walk away from the story feeling and believing that one person can change the world. We are left believing, and seeing, that Ahmed’s work is effective and has a lasting impact.
Ahmed moves from being the hero in the story to the guide. As a guide, Ahmed becomes a person of authority who changes and betters the world around him.
Better the world around you. Don’t steal the spotlight. Become the guide. Be like Ahmed.
