Do You Need a Break or a Certified Forest Therapy Guide?
January 16, 2026
It was the dawn of the internet for consumers. It was 1999. We did our work in person because this was before email, before Zoom, and before cell phones. Well, there was BlackBerry, but only for the wealthy or tech nerds. We traveled to meetings, even if it was a walk down the hall or to the building across town. Meetings every day.
It was also the year I woke up to the harsh truth that business advice I’d been given for the past 20 years was deeply flawed, bordering on total, unscientific bullshit. The advice was “Build your business and your whole career on what your customer wants, and that provides all success and satisfaction.”
When I followed that “customer-centric” mantra, it was not rainbows and puppy dogs. It was a bumpy ride and a stressful struggle to do what the customers expressed as their greatest desires. Turns out they were lying to themselves and everyone else.
My world turned upside down and the heavens opened to anoint me with everlasting sanity and wealth when the oldest guy at the end of the table at the board of directors meeting pulled me aside and said, “They don’t know what they want. And they won’t be happy until they get it.”
The Big Shift from Advice to Storytelling
When it was clear that nobody wanted my advice because they were not going to follow through and do the work to achieve the outcomes they expressed, but never meant to do themselves, I began to tell stories.
The human brain is a storytelling machine. It’s not about logic. Oh no. The story comes first, and then the brain feeds on facts. That’s how humans work and disappointment comes fast to the person who starts the conversation with an Excel sheet or PowerPoint deck instead of a story.
My high interest in human experiences, communications, and making connectionsmoved higher as I focused more on brain science and everything that included the word intelligence. More than 25 years later and more than 5,000 interviews with professionals who are good communicators, I may be a walking encyclopedia on intelligence topics and storytelling. So far, I’ve curated and applied 25 types and meanings for intelligence, including the non-human addition, artificial intelligence.
I figured if I’m building a community for high-intelligent professionals, I’d better know all the meanings and uses for intelligence.
I may be the best storytelling mentor an intelligent adult could hope to meet. Here’s what I’m doing with all of this NOW. To get this conversation rolling today, here are three essays we can use to create better stories.
Credit Selline from Pixabay
Three Essays Guaranteed to Rock Your World
Dan Koe is the author of The Art of Focus, Future Proof Substack, co-founder of Eden, and a writer obsessed with the mind, the internet, and the future. He writes long-form essays. More than 100,000 subscribers, including me, don’t think they are too long.
For our GPC Community, there are three essays that speak to conversations I hear in the community around giftedness, professional performance, and communication. All three are some of the most-read, most-shared, most-applied topics ever written.
Communication – How to articulate yourself intelligently. The inner album of greatest hits and three frameworks to practice with. This has 13,444 likes and 1.751 restacks.
Professional Path – How to fix your entire life in one day. Do this before 2026. This has 3,469 likes and 633 restacks.
Everyday genius or gifted adult – If you have multiple interests, do not waste the next 2-3 years. They want to put you in a box, don’t let them. This is your last advantage. This has 3,760 and 674 restacks.
If you don’t know what you want and you won’t be happy until you get it, maybe you need a storytelling mentor instead of a coach or another course. Because the new mantra for business in 2026 is “Produce an outcome right now or get the hell out of my inbox.”
My clients are experts who don’t need more information. They need decisions and a system that matches their brain to turn ideas into stories and stories into NOW results. Not “someday” and not “after I feel ready.” Start with my Contact page to see how this works and the path forward for you.
