In the summer of 2006, I was doing my summer internship with McKinsey in New York. My manager was an MD from a top medical school.
One day, he and I were waiting for a cab to visit our client’s office.
Soon, a cab arrived. But before us, a woman standing next to us jumped in. My manager was annoyed, but with a smile, he said, “Ma’am, you stole our cab!”
That woman ignored us, and once she was seated inside, my manager even helped her close the door.
But just as the cab started moving, he raised his right hand and showed her the middle finger!
****
This was a simple story. Just a minor incident — no drama, no car crash, or sirens wailing.
But this story stayed in my mind because it showed the transformation of a person (in my mind) from an erudite doctor-turned-consultant to someone who can be crude and hurtful.
Stories need not necessarily be dramatic or feature climbing Mt Everest or life-and-death situations.
Stories are just real-life incidents, often simple ones, that resonate with us. And they resonate because in the story something changes in our world.
In the above story, a 2-second moment changed my view of a person I earlier respected.
If you want to tell stories, look around and observe the daily happenings around you.
Notice what stands out and resonates with you, and why — these could be things that are funny, surprising, shocking, or revelatory. Anything that resonates is ready to be made into a story — now it is up to you.
PS: By the way, if you are wondering what happened to that manager I talked about — he is a VC in Silicon Valley 🙂Â
– Rajan