Blog

Michael Margolis: Believe Me Story Manifesto

Michael Margolis: Believe Me Story Manifesto

Creator: Michael Margolis, Believe Me: Why your vision, brand and leadership need a bigger story.

Purpose: To introduce a series of concepts for how to get others to believe in your story. In other words to create innovations and make change happen.

Believe Me Story Manifesto

1 Meaning

People don’t really buy a product, a solution, or idea, they buy the story that’s attached to it.

2 Perception

A brand is far more than just a name, a logo, or a tagline; it’s the stories that people tell about you.

3 Relationship

Every story exists in relationship to everything else around it.

4 Memory

We all want to look back at the story of our lives, and know that it made sense.

5 Choices

The stories we tell literally make our world.

6 Disbelief

The power of your story grows exponentially as more and more people accept your story as their truth.

7 Culture

If you want to learn about a culture, listen to the stories. If you want to change a culture, change the stories.

8 Leadership

Leaders lead by telling stories that give others permission to lead, not follow.

9 Convergence

Storytelling is our most basic technology, evolved through twenty-first-century innovation.

10 Epic

We all seek to experience our life in the most heroic of terms.

11 Change

Nobody likes a change story, especially a change story we have no control over. What people really need is a continuity story.

12 Identity

Our fate as a species is contained in the story. Both tyranny and freedom are constructed through well-supported narratives.

13 Freedom

Storytelling empowers, because it escapes the need to claim absolute truth.

14 Evolution

Reinvention is the new storyline.

15 Prophesy

Storytelling is like fortune-telling. The act of choosing a certain story determines the probability of future outcomes.

Source

Download the book: www.BelieveMeTheBook.com

Author’s Blog and more: www.GetStoried.com

Thanks to Mark Jones for pointing out this manifesto!

 

A Design Education Manifesto

A Design Education Manifesto

Creator: Mitch Goldstein, graduate student pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in Visual Communication at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Purpose: “…how to go through a design program and get the most out of the experience, and beyond as a creative professional.”

Manifesto

A Design Education Manifesto (selected highlights)

Always take risks.

You should be pushing yourself and you should be taking risks, especially in school. Big risks. Trying what may not work. Asking questions that may not have answers. Seeing if what you throw against the wall sticks.

Be aggressive.

Some professors will push their knowledge on you. Others will make you pull what you need from them. Ask questions of both. Challenge their statements. Ask for precedents.

Break the rules.

Defying the rules forces you to stray from the path of least resistance and ultimately make work that is more interesting, more meaningful and more fun to create.

Look at everything. Dismiss nothing.

Everything has potential to be interesting and influential. Not everything will be, but the more you see the better your chances are at seeing something that will be useful to you.

Be obsessive.

Obsession is what drives you to explore and find out as much as possible about something that interests you.

Be uncomfortable.

It is easy to get into the habit of making the kind of work you are comfortable making. Truly great, interesting, inspiring design comes not from comfort but from discomfort.

Be opinionated.

You should have opinions about design and the world around you. Preferably, you should have strong opinions. Ideally, you should have strong and informed opinions.

Be a cop.

A designer needs to act like a cop. When you are a designer, you are a designer 24/7/365. Always noticing, always observing, always designing, even if only in your head.

Source

Complete Manifesto: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/a-design-education-manifesto

Easy Rider

Creator: A 1969 movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern.

Purpose: Presents an alternate or counterculture view of life in the US in the 1960s including bikers, drugs, communes and the hippie lifestyles. It’s goal: a life of freedom.

Manifesto

Source

General: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Rider

Video (original trailer): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjlxqANj68U

Related Manifestos

Dead Poet’s Society

Creator: Movie made in 1989 starring Robin Williams and directed by Peter Weir. Scriptwriter Tom Schulman won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Purpose: Challenge conformity and make the most of your opportunities and your life.

Manifesto

Carpe diem.

Seize the day, boys.

Make your lives extraordinary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQtmGcdSDAI

Source

General: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Poets_Society

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQtmGcdSDAI

Related Manifestos

Helen Reddy: I Am Woman

Helen Reddy: I Am Woman

Creator: Cowritten by Helen Reddy and Ray Burton in 1970.

Purpose: To express Reddy’s passion for empowering females. This song became an anthem for the women’s liberation movement.

Manifesto

I am Woman

I am woman, hear me roar

In numbers too big to ignore

And I know too much to go back an’ pretend

‘Cause I’ve heard it all before

And I’ve been down there on the floor

No one’s ever gonna keep me down again

 

Oh yes, I am wise

But it’s wisdom born of pain

Yes, I’ve paid the price

But look how much I gained

If I have to

I can do anything

I am strong (strong)

I am invincible (invincible)

I am woman

 

You can bend but never break me

‘Cause it only serves to make me

More determined to achieve my final goal

And I come back even stronger

Not a novice any longer

‘Cause you’ve deepened the conviction in my soul

 

Oh, yes, I am wise

But it’s wisdom born of pain

Yes, I’ve paid the price

But look how much I gained

If I have to

I can face anything

I am strong (strong)

I am invincible (invincible)

I am woman

 

I am woman watch me grow

See me standing toe to toe

As I spread my lovin’ arms across the land

But I’m still an embryo

With a long, long way to go

Until I make my brother understand

 

Oh, yes, I am wise

But it’s wisdom born of pain

Yes, I’ve paid the price

But look how much I gained

If I have to

I can face anything

I am strong (strong)

I am invincible (invincible)

I am woman

 

Oh, I am woman

I am invincible

I am strong

 

I am woman

I am invincible

I am strong

I am woman

Source

General: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Woman

Lyrics: http://www.lyricstime.com/helen-reddy-i-am-woman-lyrics.html

Related Manifestos

 

Bob Dylan: Hurricane

Bob Dylan: Hurricane (song)

Creator: Co-written by Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy in 1975.

Purpose: The song protests the 1966 imprisonment of Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter and suggests racism played a significant role in his court trial and subsequent conviction. In 1985, all charges against Carter were dropped and he was released from jail.

Manifesto

Hurricane Song Lyrics

Pistols shots ring out in the bar room night

Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall

She sees the bartender in a pool of blood

Cries out “My God they killed them all”

Here comes the story of the Hurricane

The man the authorities came to blame

For something that he never done

Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been

The champion of the world.

 

Three bodies lying there does Patty see

And another man named Bello moving around mysteriously

“I didn’t do it” he says and he throws up his hands

“I was only robbing the register I hope you understand

I saw them leaving” he says and he stops

“One of us had better call up the cops”

And so Patty calls the cops

And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashing

In the hot New Jersey night.

 

Meanwhile far away in another part of town

Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around

Number one contender for the middleweight crown

Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down

When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road

Just like the time before and the time before that

In Patterson that’s just the way things go

If you’re black you might as well not shown up on the street

‘Less you wanna draw the heat.

 

Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops

Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowling around

He said “I saw two men running out they looked like middleweights

They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates”

And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head

Cop said “Wait a minute boys this one’s not dead”

So they took him to the infirmary

And though this man could hardly see

They told him that he could identify the guilty men.

 

Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in

They took him to the hospital and they brought him upstairs

The wounded man looks up through his one dying eye

Says “Wha’d you bring him in here for ? He ain’t the guy!”

Yes here comes the story of the Hurricane

The man the authorities came to blame

For something that he never done

Put in a prison cell but one time he could-a been

The champion of the world.

 

Four months later the ghettos are in flame

Rubin’s in South America fighting for his name

While Arthur Dexter Bradley’s still in the robbery game

And the cops are putting the screws to him looking for somebody to blame

“Remember that murder that happened in a bar ?”

“Remember you said you saw the getaway car?”

“You think you’d like to play ball with the law ?”

“Think it might-a been that fighter you saw running that night ?”

“Don’t forget that you are white”.

 

Arthur Dexter Bradley said “I’m really not sure”

Cops said “A boy like you could use a break

We got you for the motel job and we’re talking to your friend Bello

Now you don’t wanta have to go back to jail be a nice fellow

You’ll be doing society a favour

That sonofabitch is brave and getting braver

We want to put his ass in stir

We want to pin this triple murder on him

He ain’t no Gentleman Jim”.

 

Rubin could take a man out with just one punch

But he never did like to talk about it all that much

It’s my work he’d say and I do it for pay

And when it’s over I’d just as soon go on my way

Up to some paradise

Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice

And ride a horse along a trail

But then they took him to the jailhouse

Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.

 

All of Rubin’s cards were marked in advance

The trial was a pig-circus he never had a chance

The judge made Rubin’s witnesses drunkards from the slums

To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum

And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger

No one doubted that he pulled the trigger

And though they could not produce the gun

The DA said he was the one who did the deed

And the all-white jury agreed.

 

Rubin Carter was falsely tried

The crime was murder one guess who testified

Bello and Bradley and they both… oh they lied

And the newspapers they all went along for the ride

How can the life of such a man

Be in the palm of some fool’s hand ?

To see him obviously framed

Couldn’t help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land

Where justice is a game.

 

Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties

Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise

While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell

An innocent man in a living hell

That’s the story of the Hurricane

But it won’t be over till they clear his name

And give him back the time he’s done

Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been

The champion of the world.

Source

General: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_%28song%29

Lyrics: http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/hurricane-lyrics-bob-dylan/2e9ffb25ff6016164825696900386aa4

Related Manifestos

John Lennon: Imagine

John Lennon: Imagine

Creator: John Lennon, opening song track on his album Imagine, 1971.

Purpose: A personal declaration of how John Lennon wanted the world to be.

Manifesto

Imagine

Imagine there’s no Heaven

It’s easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today

 

Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace

 

You may say that I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope someday you’ll join us

And the world will be as one

 

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world

 

You may say that I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope someday you’ll join us

And the world will live as one

Source

General: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_%28song%29

Lyrics: http://www.lyrics007.com/John%20Lennon%20Lyrics/Imagine%20Lyrics.html

Related Manifestos

Cycle Sports Magazine: Challenge to Team Owners

Cycle Sports Manifesto

Creator: Lionel Birnie, Cycle Sports Magazine

Purpose: A response to Jonathan Vaughter’s 10 point plan to reinvigorate cycling: 11 things the cycling teams could do to create a better deal for all those interested in pro road racing.

Manifesto

Cycle Sport’s Manifesto: A Challenge to the team owners

1. Talk to major broadcasters and mainstream media in all the key markets.

2. Ask cycling’s existing fans what they like and dislike about the sport as it currently is and what they would do to broaden its appeal.

3. Approach fans of other sports and ask them what they think of cycling. Listen carefully to them – they’re potential fans.

4. Stop appearing so self-interested.

5 Get your own houses in order.

6 Respect above all the race organisers.

7. Instruct an independent auditor to conduct a report on the use of race radios.

8. Engage with the fans more.

9. Help and encourage organisers to market their events more effectively.

10. Set up rider development schemes in other parts of the world.

11. Put together a clear, cohesive and direct manifesto document – A blueprint for the future of cycling – setting out your vision.

Source

Article: http://www.cyclesportmag.com/news-and-comment/cycle-sports-manifesto-a-challenge-to-the-team-owners/

Cycle Sports Manifesto: Vaughters 10 Point Plan

Cycle Sports Manifesto

Creator: Jonathan Vaughters, President of the Association of Pro Tour and Pro Continental Cycling Teams

Purpose: Revamp Cycling, make it more successful and put it on a par with other major sports like Premier Football.

Manifesto

Vaughters 10 Point Plan

1. More races of the highest level outside of Europe.

2. Consistent, understandable formats for cycling fans.

3. Long-term guaranteed entry to the Tour de France for professional teams.

4. More focus on prevention of doping, in the first place, as opposed to catching cheats.

5. More team-time trials more often.

6. Technical innovation, such as cameras on bikes, inside cars, helmets, inside team buses to make the “craziness and danger of the peloton more real to the viewer”.

7. Equipment innovation to see if the the smartest team wins sometimes, rather than the strongest.

8. Open radios to the public and listen to your favourite team and what they are doing.

9. GPS tracking of individual riders to make races fun to watch.

10. Have an understandable and consistent way of determining the best rider in the world and the best team in the world. That might mean riders have to ride Paris-Roubaix, and if they do not finish they would be docked points.

Source

Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/9429572.stm