31 years ago, probably almost to the day, I had an ambitious idea.

Together with two friends, we were set to open our new skate and snowboard shop in the Marina District of San Francisco in late July 1993. We had barely enough capital to open the shop. In other words, we had no money to let people know who we were, what we were opening, and where we were. I knew precisely nothing about retailing, but even I knew that relying 100 percent on foot traffic alone was a dicey bet.

I hatched a long-shot plan that I’m not sure I even discussed with my partners in advance. One way or another, I was going to get the most-read newspaper columnist in San Francisco to mention our name before we opened.

But, the Pulitzer-winning columnist, Herb Caen, got… a lot of mail. Many, many, many others also vied for the legendary writer’s attention, so my plan had the vaguest of paths to success.

I quickly ruled out stalking him in person at his favorite lunch spot near the Chronicle’s offices. The newsroom was proximate to the city jail, which is where I figured I might end up.

So, I reverted to… literature.

I went to the library (for those of you under 40, they were big buildings with books in them), and found poignant quotes from famous books that took place in San Francisco. Some were about movies, some about the Gold Rush, some were about food and arts, and others were travel books.

The goal was simple. Send short, differentiated snippets that took little time to read, but had a chance of captivating the attention of a Renaissance man who had a public love affair with the city for more than half a century. I signed all of them: “Adam, a fan of HC and of SF.”

With about a week to go prior to our store’s grand opening, I sent the final gambit.

“For the moment, Mr. Caen, I’ve run out of historic artifacts for you. But I wanted to respectfully let you know that later this week, Brian, Mary, and I are opening a skate and snowboard shop on Chestnut Street in the Marina with a name that I thought both you and your readers would get a kick out of: ‘Achilles’ Wheels.’”

I don’t remember too much about all the library trips to find the various SF anecdotes, but I do strangely remember putting that last letter in the mailbox. I think I also might have left a corresponding VM for him as well.

On the day before we were set to open, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw: “Cuuute firm name as of tomorrow, that’s when Brian, Mary, and Adam open an inline skate/snowboard shop on Chestnut called Achilles’ Wheels.”

Mr. Caen also sent me a letter wishing us good luck; it’s the first thing anyone sees when they enter my office, and it always will be.

It’s impossible to know what Herb Caen’s kind reference was “worth” to the business, but I can tell you two things: It never ceased to amaze me how many people referenced that over the years, and my partners would probably confirm that my value-add arc was all downhill from there.

Here’s what I learned from that experience.

• Entrepreneurial success is often about a willingness to outwork and outsmart others, but it’s also about trying to gin up your own luck.
• When you need to stand out in the crowd, you have to take risks, you have to be creative, you have to be persistent, and you can’t lose sight of the fact that people – just like you – are the decision-makers.
• Reporters and columnists are wise; probably much wiser than you. If you’re not authentic, you haven’t got a prayer with them.

And here’s another reason why this matters.

Many high-growth companies have the same advertising budget as Achilles’ Wheels did and are also about as well-known.

When I routinely hear CEOs of these companies speak dismissively about the potential value of PR, I immediately know one thing, and it’s not good: They don’t understand the value of telling their stories.

There are 8 billion people in the world. Your business might not fail if it can’t constructively stand out in the crowd, but it’s likely going to underperform.

Smart investors don’t want any part of either.

This piece was adapted from a recent note I sent to my firm’s global community of 1000s of executives.  It’s free to sign up for these periodic articles and takes approximately 7 seconds here: https://adamjepstein.com/boardrooms-in-the-news/