The 6 traits of great storytelling—in one adorable video

A recent video that went viral hit on every critical component that authors Dan and Chip Heath teach using their ‘SUCCESs’ model. Find out what that means for you.

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A video featuring Caine, an imaginative 9-year-old boy living in East Los Angeles, spread like wildfire over the past week. It’s easy to see why.

This video features all six of the critical elements of great storytelling (more on those, below).

I’ve never posted an 11-minute video before, but this one is that good. I recommend you watch it before reading on.

In their terrific book, Made to Stick, authors Dan and Chip Heath identified six critical traits that make stories memorable. They used the acronym SUCCESs to summarize those elements (the final “s” doesn’t stand for anything.)

It’s no surprise that the video above went viral so quickly, as it had all six of the Heath Brothers’ “SUCCESs” sticky traits:

1. Simple. A boy. An idea. Some boxes. Doesn’t get much simpler than that.

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