Actions speak louder than words.
Show don’t tell.
Put your money where your mouth is.
I found myself repeating these idioms and variations thereof throughout my career as an English teacher, reminding my students that when it comes to writing, the active voice is always superior to the passive voice.
Readers want to become a part of the action, not be a bystander on the sidelines with a partial view because some tall person is standing in front of us.
Take us down to the ground level and put us into the scene. Let us feel the wind ripping into your face, the rain pelting against your bone-weary body as you take one more step toward your goal.
Let us take the journey with you.
Same goes for business.
On the journey to build something that matters, the only thing that does matter is the work we do to make it come to life.
Existing and potential partners want to see our activity, not hear us tell them about it. They want to know we’ve run the miles, that our clothes may be a bit tattered, that we’ve been sweating and grinding it out in our pursuit of something bigger than ourselves, something that consumes us because we care, not because someone told us we had to do it.
They want to know that is hasn’t been easy.
One of the most powerful stories of all time is the hero’s journey, and this right here is why. There isn’t one person on the planet who cannot relate to struggle, an inherent element in any hero’s tale.
Show us you’ve made sacrifices. Show us that even in the face of tremendous obstacles, you forged ahead, strapping yourself to the mast like Odysseus and weathered the storm, shut your eyes tight against temptation, and kept going.
Show us that, and we’re all yours.
