A short excerpt from a YouTube interview (Mick Hunt with Dr. Marcus Collins) about influence. The speakers emphasize that to move people you must first understand what moves them; Dr. Collins cites Duncan Watts’ idea that "the obvious typically isn't obvious," arguing we underinvest in studying people and culture even though they are central to influence.
Chapters
One of the quotes that's deep with me this week is, if you want to move people, you got to understand what moves them. And as simple as that quote is, that's also the genius of Dr. Marcus Collins, because I think a lot of times we take things for granted. If you want to move people, you got to understand what moves them.
A gentleman named Duncan Watts wrote a book, essentially said, the obvious typically isn't obvious. So someone points it out to you. Once someone points out, you go, oh, man, totally. Absolutely. I think that we tend to mistake the obvious because it's there. It's right in front of us. The obvious thing about us is that we know how influential people are, we know how influential culture is, but yet we spend a fraction of our time thinking about how do we better understand people so that we can understand how they influence each other, how do we better understand culture so we might be able to engage in such a way to get people to move?