This is the story of how I used my over-active analytical mind and cultivated sense of creatively to enrich the trust and friendship of a friend and potential ally—someone with a rich character, strong morals, and passionate hustle... who also happens to have immeasurably valuable experience and access to an abundance of intelligent capital.
Background
In early 2016, I was hired as a marketing consultant by a 25-year-old entrepreneur with two multi-million dollar exits under his belt and in the process of starting what appeared to be his third. His investment portfolio—as I later discovered—was equally impressive.
An entrepreneur myself—consulting as a means to fund my ventures—I was abundantly excited by the prospect of learning from him and eager to win him as a future ally.
Involved to varying degrees throughout, the project continued for a year before he made the hard/smart decision—based on the market landscape—to walk away.
Beyond the learnings he exemplified in regards to operations, pivots, and objectivity; I was captivated by his principals, leadership, and general character. He had been a mentor, a model, and a friend. I hoped to work, collaborate, or explore with him in the future.
Transition
Giving him time to mourn the death of his passion project, I maintained a light touch. Six months later, he texted me as a preface to an evite to his holiday party (yet another lesson in making widespread outreach feel personal). As expected, the party was a blast—attended by a spread of venture capitalists, prominent musicians, and strong founders.
Continually enamored by his principles and process, I implemented all that he'd given me. Still, I felt to be "outside the gates" and unable to convey proportionally appropriate gratitude.
One day—while thinking of a gift representative of my gratitude—I asked myself, "what do you get the guy who has (or is offered) everything?" I contemplated what he'd already given me (or what I'd taken from him) and was reminded of a story about a prank he'd pulled which—at this point—had become an aspirational piece of mythos with my founder friends.
Execution
The answer, I realized, was Gifted Perspective; the use of Creative Nonfiction to convey a vibrant illustration of my perception as an intangible element of gratitude.
I spent a few hours writing what had become known to my friends as "the Mayonnaise Money story" and hired an illustrator from Upwork to design a graphic representation of the concept. I published both to Masters of Irreverence; a Shopify store largely created to house my drunken ideas which leveraged Printful for on-demand printing and drop-shipping.
The "gift" was the storied encapsulated in the product description.
The Mayonnaise Money story gifted my perspective of him in an entertaining and sharable (to him) experience. Total cost, $40 in design and 3 hours of copywriting.
Delivery
I'd initially planned to send him one of the shirts with the link to the product included as a note, but—shortly after writing this—was at his house when the girl he was seeing at the time joked about me knowing a different side of him. I responded, "just ask about the mayonnaise" which prompted him to leave the room laughing.
Confused and cautiously curious, she asked asked for context. "Go ahead and tell her" he yelled from the kitchen, "you'll probably tell it better than I can." I smiled and said, "it's probably better if I read the published version." Concerned, he came back in the room.
I proceeded to read the story as theatrically as possible; watching as she went wide-eyed and he shook his head laughing. Finishing the narrative, I turned my phone to show the t-shirt attached to the product listing. Without pause he remarked, "Of Course You Did."
Some time later, while out for drinks with a similarly successful friend of his, he was reminded of the shirt and excitedly encouraged me to pull it up on my phone to share.
Of all the lessons he'd shared with me, I'd succeeded in creating an experience for him.
Lesson
As Dale Carnegie advises in 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' you should, "become genuinely interested in other people" and "give honest and sincere appreciation."
My addendum to that wisdom, leverage creative mediums unique to your strengths or relationship with them and make them feel that appreciation as viscerally as possible.
Love the process of love.
Let me know if you're keen to read more about positive manipulation and social engineering.
P.S. The friend mentioned in this piece was offered the Right to Revise prior to publishing; a consent practice for protecting personal relationships when referenced in a public forum.
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