In 1984, Steve Jobs was going to air a commercial on the Super Bowl. Now, this was a commercial that failed all market research, people thought it was going to be a catastrophic failure. And they didn't want Steve to launch it. His Board of Directors threatened to fire him. Steve Jobs said if you don't launch this commercial, I will quit. This is 1984 No one's ever heard of Steve Jobs.

They've never heard of apple. This will be the first commercial that introduces the world to Apple. So there's a lot of stakes in this story. That Steve Jobs ultimately put his foot down and his crazy commercial ended up launching in the middle of the Superbowl. Now, put yourself in someone's shoes watching the Superbowl. 1984 you're seeing like triscuits commercials, you're seeing cats eat wiskus you're seeing all sorts of brands that communicate to you and the old fashioned way and this wasn't old fashioned at the time yet.

Now Steve Jobs then launches this commercial. The commercial features these prisoners and they're shackled to their seats in a theater. Staring at a screen, when all of a sudden this woman in bright red shorts wielding a hammer is chased through the theater by policemen and dogs, and she spins her hammer around, and she breaks the screen, freeing the prisoners. And there's a famous tag at the very end. On January 24, Apple computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 will be like 1980s or analysts later figured out that that commercial generated 150 million dollars of free advertising just because people were sharing it on their own.

People didn't know what to make of this thing. Now, you might have noted something about this commercial that Steve Jobs Board of Directors noticed as well. What are we selling? Where's the product? Why didn't you show the computer again? No one's ever heard of Apple before?

Why the hell are you not showing the computer they couldn't understand it. And Steve Jobs said something famous that has lived on and infamy. He said I'm not trying to sell a product trying to sell a philosophy. Think about that. Don't sell products, sell philosophies, sell ideas. And this really starts with the principle start with why Simon Sinek coined this philosophy in his book start with why it's about how great leaders inspire action by starting with why not how or what.

But why. Now, Steve Jobs because he sold you a philosophy that evolved into think different was the idea that if you're someone who likes to think differently, Apple is the brand for you. Now he doesn't need to sell you every single computer with a brand new commercial telling you exactly why it's different or exactly why it's better or what the features are. What he can do is he can not only to sell your computers, he can sell you iPods, phones, iTunes music, subscription services, he can sell you so many different things because he started with a philosophy. That is how you would last real change. And now you might have remembered at the top of this.

I started with why I started with the idea That if you give me an hour of your time, you're going to become a better storyteller. That's a big why that's a big promise. I now know why I'm here. I might be willing to let this crazy guy rant at me for one hour on storytelling. It's because you start with why you have to give people context that lets them know what they're in for, especially the shorter your medium. If you're someone who's trying to get into digital storytelling, or trying to do an elevator pitch, or trying to get a story really condensed start with why start with your vision, in lay it into your story.

It doesn't have to be so obvious. But you always want to give people why they're listening to you. Imagine just walking up to a friend in a busy street. They're in a hurry, and you just start launching into your day. Well, I started with this, I got to this and then I started doing this. You start laying this out and they're wondering what is going on.

Now imagine if you instead approached your friend and the first thing you said was starting with a Y or a thesis that said, this is the most embarrassing thing I've ever witnessed in my life. Then you tell the exact same story. I started here I want to hear I woke up into that Then all of a sudden, your friend knows at least what they're doing in the conversation. They know what the punch line might be, and they can't wait to listen to that punch line. But you gave them context. You started with a thesis.

And you might remember that I followed up that first why at the top of this whole series, with the idea of why should you want to be a better storyteller. And that why I said, it's because I believe you're going to become more successful, the better of a storyteller you are, which I fundamentally believe. So again, the more you can explain your why the more effective you're going to be at immediately gauge engaging your audience. Now, if you have an entire television series, if you have an entire Long, long novel to work with, you may not need to be quite so direct quite so quickly. But eventually you're going to need to understand that your audience wants to know why they're here. attention spans have gotten shorter, no matter what medium you're working in digital has changed our consumption habits and it's only going to get more and more minute as millennials get older and older.

So you really want to understand and use as a tool. The quickest possible way to get people to stop scrolling in their feed or to stop their busy commute, listening to your story, or to really just make sure they're focusing on what you're saying. Give them a why