Books

Book Review - Tell to Win: Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story

How storytelling is one of the most important trait to connect and persuade people. Peter Guber gives us the basics of story telling with amazing examples from A listers to World Leaders.

I recently finished the Tell to Win book by Peter Guber (Non-affiliate link). In a previous post, I mentioned how I am working to make re-reading a habit. I am working with a sales consultant that recommended this book to me as a brilliant book about creating a story.

For those who don't know, Peter Gruber is the CEO of Mandalay Entertainment and former CEO of Sony Pictures. A person with high connections and exciting stories. What Peter highlighted in this book is not to pitch someone an idea or sell a product. Instead, we should focus on creating a story to make a connection and persuade people.

Peter walks you through what makes a story stick with the audience and a great story's mechanics. I had to re-read chapters several times as there is so much great content to absorb the message. Stories range from A-list celebrities, world leaders, and creating stories to convince people to invest in his movies.

I enjoyed the various stories about how Peter showed what worked and didn't work. A lot of motivation or business books focus on positive outcomes. Peter does a great job reflecting on both sides of the coin for different scenarios.

It's easy to read the book and come away with yeah, I need to craft my message into a story. At least for me, this is not just a switch in my head from off to on. I have been working hard on crafting my message and story. So far, it has served quite well for something I recently presented with a promising outcome.

Storytelling is something that has been around for centuries. Pay attention to your surroundings and start listening to people presenting, talking, or convincing to see how other people are storytelling. When I think of brilliant storytellers Steve Jobs for me, jump to the front of the line. For example, when he presented the iPhone back in 2007, everyone was eating his every word, and he kept painting a big picture till finally, he revealed the iPhone.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in convincing people towards an outcome or change their minds. I initially thought this book is geared more towards business, but the more I thought about it, the book is for everyone.