A rugged old man sat contently in the side alley off the main sidewalk. Clothes were dungy, dirt was on his face, and you could smell his aroma from a five-foot radius. One day a wealthy business owner noticed him from the sidewalk passing by. He stopped, turned, and proceeded to walk slowly to the old man who at the time was sitting up against the side of a brick building in his alley. The businessman asked the man sitting down who he was and how he came to be in the situation he is to which the old man replied with a sympathy story of his own. The businessman said to the old man "I can teach you everything I know about business, the marketing, the sales, the management, everything." The old man, uninterested, said that all he wanted was a few dollars and the businessman could go back on his way. The businessman gave him $10 and went on his way. The next day the businessman came back to where the old man sat every day and again asked if he wanted to know all the information about the business world. Again the old man was uninterested and just asked for money. So the businessman gave him $50 and went on his way. Finally, on the third and last day the businessman came back he again repeated his usual pitch and again the old man refused and was uninterested. The business owner gave him $300 today. The old man looked up at the business owner and asked why he has given him so much. The business owner said, "We just brought on two of the top five clients in our industry. Our business started from nothing two years ago to becoming a top competitor in our field, we doubled our growth in a matter of days and now I can appoint a CEO and retire." The old man then asked the business owner "Why give money to me though? Do you want me to be the CEO?" To this, the business owner said, "I offered to help but you refused me 3 times, I gave you money 3 times and only on the third time with a substantial amount did you show interest." 

Needless to say, the man didn't get the job but he did eat pretty well for a month to go on and get back on his feet. The moral of the story is two different things. The first and more oblivious is that you should always show interest in people because you never know what you can learn from them. The second more hidden moral is that if you want something from someone you should always lead with a story. It was until after the business owner talked about his company then the old man grew an interest. Just like how you're reading this now because you found the story above appealing. Always start with a story.

When someone new arrives on Steemit they might have all the information in the world to give about facts and useful thoughts. They write up good informative posts to help the community but the community might not even recognize the post or the content.

There's a reason why before you start typing a post the box says, "Write your story..."

So go ahead and write a story! Don't lay out facts after facts because that's not how people learn. They learn through detailed, attention-capturing stories. So relay the story and then preach the lesson. 

![Screen Shot 2018-07-19 at 11.58.33 PM.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmZeYx1JZv3N4LkEqc1kQdDHbQeNZ6BbWHAaJLmQ8SxQ1J/Screen%20Shot%202018-07-19%20at%2011.58.33%20PM.png)

Tell me what you think in the comments!

-Isaac