The Wall St. Journal earned $2 Billion with this simple story (The Tale of Two Young Men)

+ How you can use the same story to persuade

Friday, April, 8th 12:01 AM
Greetings from Konstanz, Germany.

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When I was in college, a successful alumnus came to talk about careers.

SUNY Geneseo — A spectacular place

At the end of his presentation, Padraic, a private equity investor, told me a short story that changed my life.

He said,

“A decade ago, 10-15 students would write me thank you emails after my presentation. Now, (late 2010’s) students stopped writing them.”

So, an easy way to stand out, he promised, is to thank people personally.

I sent him a thank you (my classmates didn’t)

The next day Padric spent half an hour on the phone with me preparing for my Fulbright interview.

With his help, I crushed the interview and since then interview with ease.

Now I am the guest speaker

Today, I spoke at a German high school (Bad Saulgau) and told this story.

Before the day was over, I had a handful of emails from students who

• want to study in the USA

• felt inspired by my presentation

• just wanted to say thank you

When I was a guest speaker in the past, I simply wrote my email address on the board, and maybe one student would email me.

If you want to persuade someone, you can use this exact pattern.

“The most beautiful rural church in the world” (Bad Schussenried)

The Tale of Two Young Men

The pattern is simply:

Two people with similar starting points end up with hugely different outcomes because of one small thing. (the thing you want them to do)

The Wall St Journal used this story to generate over $2 Billion in sales over 25 years.

That’s the power of a good story:

(Knowledge acquired by reading the journal, of course)

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You are always welcome to reach out. I enjoy hearing from you:)

— Connor