PERSUADING TO CHANGE MINDS
“attention first. shake the box. then persuade.”
The Lesson
Half of persuasion is getting attention. Often the hardest half. The moment you understand that you control how other people feel, your whole life changes. Johnny Trinh publicly forgave Mark Wahlberg. Not because he had to, but because he understood reciprocity and representation. The foot-washing protesters got attention (A+) and shook people's boxes so hard they had to rethink their assumptions. You always represent your group. Acts that seem extreme work because with enough people, someone will always do the uncomfortable thing naturally. And the rest imagine themselves in that position.
Real-World Example
A startup's product hunt launch seems impossible to stand out. Standard approach: polished demo, feature list. Shake-the-box approach: 'We built this to kill Salesforce. We'll probably fail. Here's why we're trying anyway.' Polarizing? Yes. Attention-getting? Absolutely. Now you've shaken their box. They're thinking about YOUR framing, debating YOUR claims. Half of persuasion accomplished.
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