As I'm sure you know, I've long been an advocate of using stories in marketing content to give a more engaging (and effective) experience to your audience.

But recently I've noticed a  worrying trend. I guess I'd call them “ego-stories”.

You've probably seen them yourself, they're especially prevalent on Linkedin.

On the surface they look like a solid use of a story to make a point.

But they leave you with an icky feeling. And when you analyse them you can see why.

In almost every case, the author is the hero. And the story simply recounts some good deed they did with a “lesson” tacked on the end.

They hired someone who was late for an interview: lesson = everyone deserves a chance.

Their first 3 businesses went under but now they're a gazillionaire: lesson = you can make it even if you don't succeed at first. 

They paid the amount the person in front of them in a shopping queue was short of: lesson = er, actually I'm not sure there's a lesson, it was just all about showing what a wonderful human being they were as far as I can see.

In literature, the hero is never perfect. The hero always has flaws. That's why we can identify with them.

And they never succeed just through their own brilliance or virtue. There's always someone who helps, or luck, or some external factor.

Otherwise we don't believe it. And we don't like them.

So when you're writing stories to illustrate your points, try making someone else the hero. Perhaps your client. Or make it about something you witnessed.

Or if you're the hero, show how you were helped. Or you were lucky. Or you made a mistake and then figured things out.

But please, please, don't go down the ego-story route!