I told a simple story and unexpectedly won the best story of the evening at a storytelling event.

The show's theme was work, and I spontaneously decided to buy a ticket. The form asked if I wanted to share a story, and after a few seconds of hesitation, I checked it.

Surprisingly for everyone, including the organizers, it was a full house, so many people wanted to share their stories. They put all the names into a bag and drew them one by one. There was no time for all the stories, and I assumed I would never get called. I was wrong.

The second slip they pulled was my name.

I prepared my story one day before the show. It's a simple story of how I urgently needed to find a job in New York. I walk into a random coffee shop in New York and ask for a job. They tell me to start immediately, but I wasn't happy, I was terrified as a few minutes earlier I lied that I could operate the coffee machine and the cash register.

10 minutes later, after the manager saw the long line stretching outside the coffee shop, he decided to put an end to my mystery and instructed me to return the uniform and get the hell out of his shop.

Why did this simple story win among 8 stories? Many were extremely well-told, and some were much more profound.

💥 #1. It was funny because of the culture clash: I told the story in a way that made it obvious that I had no clue what I was doing. I had no idea about the coffee types and American food as that was my 3rd day in the States.

😅 #2. The stakes were high: there was tension, and I gradually increased the stakes as the story unfolded. Serving customers when you don't know what they are ordering and how to operate the machine to charge them is not the most comfortable experience

🤗 #3. I was vulnerable and added many details: details are everything in stories. I tried to share my emotions, thoughts, and actions in detail without going into the aspects that didn't push the story forward. By being open about things I didn't know and things I didn't understand, I didn't make a fool of myself; I let others relate to my story as we all have been in similar situations.