The Con

I think Mark Cuban is saying that the con is to capture peoples beliefs. Once you hold their beliefs they serve as a shield against sound policy. The con is perpetuated by believers who thwart the tangible world’s dynamics while reaching into people’s pockets.

Lessons on interaction:

1. Never confront the belief front on. You will only cause an entrenchment.
2. Find where the market enters the observer’s life, on the margins. Everyone’s part of a market.
3. Draw out the experience that is counter to the belief- where does the other impact their lives.
4. At all costs, avoid undocumented and unverifiable stories. That’s most likely what they are: a story, a fable, or a myth.
5. Expressing frustration is the same as defeat their eyes. Their primary objective is that you exit and leave them with their stories and an audience.
6. Be prepared to mitigate the cascading half-truths. This is tricky. It is at this point that the audience is seduced by the fantasy.
7. Watch carefully for emotional triggers. These are the motivating factors to galvanize the audience to action. Yet rarely do they have anything to do with the topic at hand.