Marketing & Alexander’s Infamy

What the Creation of a Myth Can Teach Us About Our Own Stories

" You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built into the human plan. We come with it. – Margaret Attwood "

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What is a business brand if not the creation of a person-centric myth? It is little more than a story we tell to our customers – one we hope will lead to those customers engaging with us on a deeper level because we have created an emotional connection. But perhaps this thought is fleeting. A brand may be a myth, but it must still be tinged with truth to be effective.

And if it’s a good brand, it’s usually a client-centric narrative. With the customer as the hero.

The Brand of Alexander

When I think of the great leaders and conquerors who built myths around themselves, my thoughts always wander to Alexander The Great. The effectiveness of his story building is right there in the name – who else among us can authoritatively call ourselves “The Great” at anything?

A myth made real, though not necessarily real, can be as effective as the most truthful of tales.

Excerpt From One of My Upcoming Chapters on Alexander The Great

Alexander’s infamy began when he was young. His father Phillip ruled victoriously. He beat back the brutalist opponents around; dominated both the Balkans and Greece; saved Macedonia from near ruin in the campaign.

Weaponizing his effective leadership of men, he built an army of seasoned and speeded warriors. Like Nazi Germany’s famed Panzer divisions, speed was a decisive advantage in warfare even two millennia prior.

In BC 336, the 47-year-old King Phillip attended the theater of Aegae. The event was a celebration due to the attendance by not only Greeks but also Macedonians. It highlighted their loyalty to and appreciation for the king. His bodyguard, Pausanias, was not as loyal.

While making his entrance, history tells us, Pausanias stormed out of the team of bodyguards and towards Philip. From under the darkness of his cloak, dagger flashed, to return to the darkness of the kingly ribs. The assassin ran away, but his foot hung up on a tree’s root during his escape. His collegiate bodyguards killed him within moments, as Alexander’s father-king passed.

Swift justice from a tree, or just a lover’s quarrel?

"Fate always works herself into reality. "

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Pausanias was Philip’s former boy lover, cast aside when morals were not definitive. Trying to redeem his name, the young man was ridiculed and raped by multiple members of the court and their associates. He asked the king for justice, but the demotion of his perpetrator did not satisfy the former lover.

Alexander accused the Persian king of the assassination. Some blamed Philip’s widow, one of seven widowed women, and Alexander’s mother, Olympias. A ruthless woman in the spirit of Empress Wu Chao, she murdered rivals and led armies into bloodbaths after Alexander’s passing.

Heir apparent, the twenty-one-year-old Alexander was crowned within hours.

Under the influence of his mother and recalling his father’s instruction, he ordered the next two rivals to the throne murdered. These Macedonian murders were a mere act of Machiavellian practicality.

Rumors arose Alexander was the mastermind behind his own father’s murder, as he was not only the one with the most to benefit but also would have the power to conceal. Nevertheless, an opportunity presented itself to a calculating man. He lived full – days and nights.

The Winning Lie

Upon his ascent, Alexander rose to speak with his men, and deceived them that King Philip II was not his father; as if it were not grandiose enough. Satisfied not to be the son of the most formidable King, it was insufficient for him to be most dominant. Wanting a better battle so he might become more triumphant.

Alexander began a rumor his father was Zeus, seed of Jupiter and son of the sky god; the god-man on earth loos’d.

His mother, Olympias, also benefited from her conjugal connection to the thunder god as she commanded the same army after Alexander’s death; as Mary’s union and immaculate conception propelled her to eternal grandeur in Catholic theology due to her son’s divine paternity.

Two Takeaways

First Takeaway – The Personal Myth You Create Should Benefit Others

We see this clearly in the example of Olympias. Alexander’s mother may not have amounted to much other than spawning the progeny who became “Great.” That is until Alexander spawned the rumor that he was the son of Zeus. A sky-god made mortal, granting his mother the honor of command born through a conjugal connection to the divine.

A compelling story benefits more than the subject of the tale. Even a lie can benefit. 

" God draws straight lines with crooked pencils."

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Second Takeaway – Who You Become is More Important Than What You Do

" It’s not what I do, but who I become that makes my life worthy of living. "

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Think of this in terms of a movie – stellar first and second acts mean nothing if we do not see the completion of the hero’s journey. The subject of the story’s development cascades into their ascent to something higher. You see this with Alexander and his transformation into “The Great.”

He became somebody so monumental that the deeds that led him to that point became mere footnotes. It was who he became, not what he did.

In more tangible terms, your personal or business-related story only matters if the outcome makes you and others more than you were before. A person who desires to be holy and helpful to others gains a bit of the universal. And approaches the pinnacle of manhood if he is accepts the summons to fight evil. 

The best marketers make others the hero of the story.