You're Only As Good As the Story You Pull Out of Your Pocket

My grandfather has used that sentence to greet me all my life.

No warm embrace. No smile. Not even a handshake.

Thirty years later, he still approaches me, stands in front of me, looks me dead in the face, stares deep into my eyes and says in a very powerful and intimidating tone, “You’re only as good as the story you pull out of your pocket.”

He then pauses. A long pause.

Butterflies always start fluttering around in my stomach.

He breaks his own silence and then asks, “So, tell me the story of what’s in your pocket.”

___________________

While some may see it as a strange way to interact with immediate family, I don’t.
My grandfather taught me a very important lesson that has molded and shaped me into the person I am today.

He taught me the art of storytelling and the value in thinking creatively.

He never asked what was “in” my pocket, but instead the “story” of what was in my pocket.

No matter if I had three objects or twenty in my pocket, I would have to connect them all to tell a story. A creative story. A story without limits.

You see my grandfather, now 81, grew up during a different time. A time that was pure, absent of today’s junk, noise, and clutter. A time that was free of iPhone’s, iPad’s, Blackberry’s, computers, the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, television, or muti-lined telephones.

This was a time where people were forced to think.

(If you don’t believe me, freshen up on your 1920’s–1950’s history.)

Today, it’s too easy to not have to think.

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Well, I have a challenge for you. I am going to ask you to think. I’m going to ask you to do something. I am going to ask you to complete the same task my grandfather has asked me to do hundreds and hundreds of times.

Why? It’s going to require you to stretch your mind and think beyond your next phone call, text message, click in Google, or response to an e-mail.

It’s going to make you think. It’s going to get you to create something. That’s what each one of us does every minute of everyday at 20nine. We create.

So dig into your pocket, pull out what is inside, and create a story around the objects you unearth.

Go ahead, do it.

Tell us about it.

Post it here.

On our Blah–g.

We want to see what you create and your story.

I just did.

___________________

Regardless when I see my grandfather, I do this exercise daily. It keeps my mind fresh and always makes me smile.

Today, I was wearing an old pair of shorts with three objects inside my pocket that I’ve accumulated over who knows how many months.

I found a paintball, a “Rubber Ducky” sticker that my three-year-old cousin gave me while I was babysitting, and a coupon from one of those in-aisle coupon dispensers at the supermarket for a can of Campbell’s soup.

My story...

“Quack, quack. Bang, bang. Duck soup.”