Jason Serinus told this story in this month’s issue of Stereophile magazine:

“In the San Francisco Bay area, where I live, a man on a municipal light-rail train recently pulled out a .45-caliber pistol and shot another passenger as he was exiting the train. Although security-video footage revealed that the gun was clearly visible before the shooting – the man had pulled it out of his pocket and waved it about on multiple occasions – not a single passenger noticed; everyone was too consumed with their screens and music.”

You might be expecting a rant about how we’re all too obsessed with our screens and music, and we need to come together and sing ‘Koombaya’. As though we’re all doing this bad thing with our Beats headphones.

Really there’s nothing wrong with it. Nobody should stop jammin’ to music on the train, just because somebody else might start waving around a .45.

But still… years ago did you ever go to a friend’s house just so you could listen to records or CDs together? Or watch a movie?

Nobody does that now. Cuz you can get whatever you want in your own private space. It’s all self-serve.

Jason continues in his editorial: “I can’t be the only (person) who finds himself disturbed by the replacement of collective ritual with private absorption.”

There’s a business version of this too: You grew weary of the Dilbert Cube, so you started a business and created your own world. Now you’re the business equivalent of an oblivious guy on the train wearing headphones and you don’t know somebody’s waving a gun around.

This is why, in my Roundtables and 4-Man Intensives, the rule is: Your laptop is shut unless you’re using it for the express purpose of assisting the person who’s on the Hot Seat right now.

Everyone is physically present.

Nobody is texting.

Nobody is mentally “somewhere else.”

Then something wonderful happens, because everyone is completely there. The power of community after you’ve had 3-6 meals together is palpable. The connections can last for decades.

Hey, if you can’t leave your business to run by itself for a mere 4 hours or 24 hours, you don’t have a business in the first place. You’re rowing in a galley ship.

Plus there’s is no search engine like another human being. Nor will there never be. Start asking them questions, cuz when you’re with six or twelve or eighteen people for a few days, and all hail from different corners of the world, the intelligence you gather from them is just extraordinary.

I know of no one who has sold online successfully for years, who did it just by hiding in their cave. Sometimes you gotta take off your ‘phones and converse with the other passengers on the train.

One last story for ya.

The Great Blasket Island produced some of Ireland’s greatest writers and storytellers, even though the Island never had more than 200 citizens. ©Perry Marshall

From the 1800’s to 1950, a small, hardy community of about 100+ people, mostly fishermen, lived on the Great Blasket Island off the coast of Ireland. Across two centuries, a few thousand people made this tiny island their home.

Yet that teeny tiny island of 3 square miles and a few dozen families produced three of Ireland’s most revered literary figures and storytellers.

Why?

Because the sun goes down at 4:30pm and doesn’t come up until 8:30am. They had no electricity. The winters are long and the days are short.

It’s not like you can stay out fishing in the Atlantic ocean when it’s pitch black at night.

So what did they do?

They sang and told stories around the campfire. Every night.

Imagine being born into a tight-knit, storytelling culture and growing to be an old man or old woman, immersed in Gaelic storytelling your entire life.

How could that NOT produce great literature?

If you’re selling online, you need to learn to tell great stories too.

How do you learn to tell great stories?

By sitting around the fire and… hearing great stories.

Today the Blasket island is deserted. There are no more campfires every night. The campfires moved to the pubs and the churches and the mastermind groups.

Look around you and confirm for yourself: Isn’t it true that the pubs and churches and mastermind groups are where the great storytellers of today come from?

Perry Marshall

About the Author

Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.

He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.