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The one rule to follow for success as a storyteller.
I want to talk about the biggest breakthrough I’ve had as a longform storyteller. THE secret to success—though it’s less a secret than a simple rule—and something I thought about just last Friday.
Because last Friday, in his newsletter Friday Forward, the entrepreneur Robert Glazer wrote about Peloton’s founder and CEO John Foley. Foley got a lot of shit for Peloton’s disastrous 2021. (Turns out, as soon as it was safe for millions of people to return to the gym, they did.) Foley stepped down as CEO this month after the company announced it would lay off 2,800 people. Foley was ridiculed as an idiot for increasing inventory and not anticipating that the pandemic surge in at-home stationary bikes might wane once the vaccine debuted.
Glazer’s newsletter took a different tact. He showed you the Foley from a decade ago, brave enough to leave his cushy e-commerce executive gig to start a company where spin classes connected to the internet, and thereby the best spin instructors in the world. Foley believed in his idea so much that early on, when it looked like Peloton would fail, he poured his life’s savings into the company, trying to reach a launch deadline. Foley wasn’t fearless. He wasn’t even confident. During this stretch he agreed to go to dinner with his wife on the condition they talk…
