The Parable of the Fisher King, and How It Applies to Your Messaging
One of my all-time favorite movies was Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King, staring Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges and Mercedes Ruehl, from 1991. The movie’s key lesson — as told through a parable — is one that I think applies to much more than just life and love.
In a key moment in the movie, Robin Williams’s character tells the story to Jeff Bridges’s character:
Did you ever hear the story of the Fisher King?
It begins with the king as a boy having to sleep alone in the forest to prove his courage so he can become king.
While he's spending the night alone, he's visited by a sacred vision. Out of the fire appears the Holy Grail…a symbol of God's divine grace.
A voice said to him, "You shall be keeper of the Grail...so that it may heal the hearts of men."
But the boy was blinded by greater visions of a life, filled with power and glory and beauty. And in this state of radical amazement he felt for a brief moment, not like a boy...but invincible. Like a god.
So he reached in the fire to take the Grail...and the Grail vanished...leaving him with his hand in the fire to be terribly wounded.
Now, as this boy grew older, his wound grew deeper.
Until one day...life for him lost its reason.
He had no faith in any men, not even himself. He couldn't love….or feel loved. He was sick with experience.
He began to die.
One day, a fool wandered into the castle...and found the king alone.
And being a fool, he was simple-minded. He didn't see a king. He only saw a man alone…and in pain.
And he asked the king, “What ails you, friend?"
And the king replied: "I'm thirsty and I need some water to cool my throat."
So the fool took a cup from beside his bed, filled it with water and handed it to the king.
And as the king began to drink...he realized his wound was healed.
He looked…and there was the Holy Grail...that which he sought all of his life.
He turned to the fool and said: "How could you find that which my brightest and bravest could not?"
The fool replied: "I don’t know. I only knew that you were thirsty."
What Does This Have to Do With Messaging?
The mistake that the king’s brightest and and bravest collectively made is one that I find brands, companies and marketers making too often. They succumb to their instincts to shove proverbial gold and bejeweled chalices in front of their markets’ eyes, but the market isn’t looking for bejeweled chalices and diamond-encrusted gems. They are in pain of some kind…and they care first and foremost about quenching their own thirst.
The fool in this parable was no fool after all. He saw a person — an individual — in need…and he took action to soothe his pain and solve his problem. The king took note, and instantly took to the fool. The problem was solved, and then (and only then) did the king recognize the fool’s offering as a treasure…the Holy Grail, in fact.
The Moral of the Story
Think about this the next time you are working on messaging for a website, marketing materials or ad copy:
Are you trying to convince your audience that you have the shiniest treasure of them all? Or are you expressing a genuine interest in recognizing a problem that needs to be solved, and demonstrating the empathy and experience it takes to solve it for them? The latter is convincing; the former is boasting.
Know their why. Solve their pain. Earn their trust…before you can earn their business.
Oh, and go watch The Fisher King, if you haven’t already.