Be a different engine

Once upon a time, there was a young locomotive engine who was eager to grow. He was told that, back in the good old days, engines would simply blow their horns and railroad cars would line up behind them, making the train bigger.

But that was long ago. These days, so many engines are blowing their horns that the cars simply don’t know where to go. Trains aren’t growing. Cars aren’t getting anywhere either. It’s becoming quite a problem.

That’s when this engine decided to be different.

He didn’t blow his own horn, but decided to talk to the cars about where they would like to go. The cars, desperately looking for help, genuinely appreciated being asked and many were eager to line up behind the engine, helping him grow.

Soon, he was one of the largest trains in the yard.

Even when larger, more powerful engines blew their horns, the cars paid no attention. They wanted to line up behind the different engine — the one that listened to them and showed an interest in where they wanted to go.

Still, the other engines continued to blow their horns louder and louder. Some even added more and bigger horns, but nothing seemed to work. They couldn’t understand why the cars didn’t line up behind them anymore.

Finally, one of the largest engines swallowed his pride and asked the different engine for his secret.

“I don’t understand why the cars line up behind you,” the larger engine steamed. “I’m bigger than you, faster than you — I can take the cars wherever I want in half the time you can. Why do they follow you?”

The different engine replied simply, “I ask them where they want to go.”

“But, what if they don’t want to go where you are going?” asked the bigger engine.

“I know I can’t help all of the cars get where they want to go. But there are enough cars going my way to make me one of the largest trains in the yard and I’m happy with that,” the different engine said. “A few cars have even told me they decided to go where I was going, which was a nice surprise.”

“But, but…” the larger train trailed off.  He just couldn’t understand.

“It’s Content Marketing,” the different engine said. “You should get on board.”