You are currently browsing the MrBizPlan.com weblog archives for the day August 7, 2008.
- Mr BizPlan Says (41)
- October 7, 2008: How the Credit Crisis Affects Small Business
- September 26, 2008: Is Your Brand Awesome? Should it be?
- September 17, 2008: What's going on? From Wall Street to Main Street.
- September 2, 2008: The Universe of Opportunities
- August 7, 2008: Rags to Riches...Anecdotally Speaking
- June 30, 2008: Building Quality Financial Projections
- June 16, 2008: "The Only Thing We Have To Fear..."
- May 29, 2008: "Free Money to Pay Your Bills!" Or Maybe Not (Part 2)
- May 20, 2008: "Free Money to Pay Your Bills!" Or Maybe Not (Part 1)
- May 9, 2008: Ten Reasons Why Businesses Succeed (In My Opinion)
Archive for August 7, 2008
Rags to Riches…Anecdotally Speaking
August 7, 2008 by mrbizplan.
I love listening to a good story…especially ones about entrepreneurs and their path to eventual success. The woman or man who turned nothing into something, who did it quickly, and without the help of others, AKA the “rags to riches” story.
I think there is a yearning in every entrepreneur who hears these stories to identify with the subject and imagine how it could happen to them. Like there is some magic formula to success, and if we could just do this one or two things…our business would take off, our work load would ease up and we would start living the good life we deserve.
There is a video on YouTube of famed story teller Ira Glass, host of This American Life, explaining what makes a good story. According to Glass the first characteristic is (paraphrasing here) an anecdotal storyline; a sequence of events that leads to a destination, creating questions and suspense along the way. The second characteristic is a moment of reflection or “ah ha” moment.
This formula, or at least the first characteristic is used in most “rags to riches” story. The second characteristic is usually more illusive. For example, in the August issue of Inc. Magazine the cover story proclaims “Think Rich and Never Give Up“ subtitled “How Joe Cirulli turned his last 12 cents into a $17 million company”.
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