Saved by a Spider

Early in my career as a children's book editor, I published a number of award-winning books, including one that received a Caldecott Medal — the most prestigious children's picture book award — so I know a good story well told.

It was not, however, until much later in my career, when I was teaching entrepreneurship to women aged 50 and over, that I discovered one of the most vivid descriptions of what it meant to be a female entrepreneur in E. B. White's children's classic, "Charlotte's Web."

Charlotte, a gray spider about the size of a gumdrop with eight legs, is a fearless entrepreneur — clever, compassionate, daringly innovative, infinitely skilled, indefatigable and resourceful. Entrepreneurship is all about problem-solving, and this one could not have been clearer from the start. Her friend Wilbur the Pig's life is at stake. She had to transform destined-for-dinner Wilbur into a renowned celebrity whose miraculous story people would come from far and wide to see and marvel at. Saving him was going to be the biggest challenge of her life. She needed results!

Expert at spinning gossamer silk threads seven times stronger than steel into webs for survival, Charlotte quickly realized she had to improvise and redeploy her skill. Now, instead of hurling herself into space attached only by a silk dragline to create webs to trap her prey, she had to spin and weave eye-popping words into her orb to convince farmer Homer Zuckerman that he had a pig too valuable to turn into bacon. Words were not her métier, but Charlotte was about to give a whole new meaning to poetry in motion.

She becomes an impresario — epically adroit and a master spinner of words that work. Words that make an impact, changing behaviors in all those who have a stake in this little porker's future. Driven by her prescience and cutting-edge common sense, Charlotte becomes an ultimate "social media influencer," delivering transformative results as she builds her unprecedentedly successful business of saving Wilbur the Pig.

Long before anyone thought of the World Wide Web, Twitter or any social media platform, Charlotte spun an outstanding social media marketing campaign through her aerodynamic feats. She created Wilbur's brand, demonstrating he was no ordinary pig, with just five effective words and 28 characters: "Some Pig," "Terrific," "Radiant," and lastly, "Humble." Charlotte's daily miracles inspired awe and wonder, drawing steadily increasing curious crowds from miles around to Zuckerman's barn.

Charlotte had just one social platform — her web — but it was positioned above the barn door where she could best display her brand messaging directly to her target audience. While the barnyard slept, Charlotte launched her magic as she pitched headlong down to the center of her web, cut and ate some lines for space, and created her first message.

The following morning, when Lurvy, Zuckerman's farmhand, came with Wilbur's breakfast, he dropped the bucket of slops as he looked up and saw "Some Pig" written smack in the middle of Charlotte's web. Flabbergasted, he ran back to the house to get Homer. The two men stood transfixed. It's a miracle — a sign, exclaimed Homer — that we have "no ordinary pig!"

Word spread like wildfire. For days, neighbors flocked to the farm to see Zuckerman's pig. Charlotte was delighted her plan was working. Still, she knew she had to keep their interest in Wilbur alive and growing so that people would continue to care about his fate.

Like any good brand, hers needed to be refreshed. So, Charlotte called a meeting of her barnyard colleagues. Charlotte, the entrepreneur, was a great team builder with superb talent-management skills. She understood her resources and maximized them. She built a diverse, multigenerational working team — a barnyard network nonpareil, creating a culture that empowered others to help get things done.

She enlisted her barnyard team to come up with new words. The lamb suggested "Pig Supreme" but Charlotte knew the lasting negative impact of a wrong word and turned it down, saying it sounded like a rich dessert. Then, the goose suggested "Terrific!" Everyone applauded it, and that night, Charlotte set to work updating her web.

The next morning, Lurvy, Homer and his wife Edith discovered the new message. Astonished, they phoned the local newspaper and suggested that they send a reporter and photographer. News of the wondrous pig exploded, bringing more and more people from even further distant points to Zuckerman's farm.

While Charlotte was restricted to just one messaging platform, she created a unique, highly visible brand in her web. Her superlative adjectives disrupted the traditional piglet-to-bacon narrative in ways that educated, entertained and drew a steadily increasing number of fans from miles around. Her audience amplified her messaging exponentially through their word-of-mouth social networks — customer engagement and retention at its best.

At last, the Zuckermans had a vested interest in sparing Wilbur from the spit. They decide Wilbur needs fresh, clean straw rather than manure in his pigpen, a buttermilk bath, and a snazzy pen to take Wilber to the county fair. They painted "Zuckerman's Famous Pig" in big gold letters on the side. Looking on, Wilbur was beginning to feel he just might be "Terrific!" Words do matter.

Eager to keep up the momentum, Charlotte roped the repugnant barnyard rat, Templeton, in to help. The rat was constantly rummaging in the dump where all manner of words might be recycled from the trash. The exilic Templeton sharply rejected the idea until the sheep pointed out how his and Wilbur's fates were intertwined: "If there were no Wilbur, no one would come to the barn with a bucket of warm slops to pour into the trough every morning, and you'd soon starve." Sustainability at its literary and gourmet finest.

Templeton salvaged an advertising piece from a box of soapflakes bearing the word "Radiant." Once Charlotte had eaten "Terrific" (she always repurposed her silken strands) and replaced it with "Radiant," Wilbur began to feel radiant. He pranced and danced before his audience, doing his best to be brand authentic as "Some Pig," "Terrific," and "Radiant." He was becoming the brand.

Then, the Zuckermans loaded Wilbur into his new crate, lifted it onto the bed of their pickup truck, and drove to the fair. Only Wilbur knew two stowaways, Charlotte and Templeton, were in his crate. At the fair, while noisy crowds came to gawk at Zuckerman's Famous Pig, Charlotte shimmied out of Wilbur's crate and began to spin a new web under the barn roof. (Like the best entrepreneurs, she was resilient and capable of pivoting when necessary.)

As she was warming up, she instructed Templeton to find a new word for her. He returned with an old newspaper, and, in a stroke of genius, Charlotte spotted "humble" and spun it into her web platform so that people wouldn't think Wilbur was getting too big for his trotters.

The spectators were thrilled, and the fair directors delighted, with the increased attendance from everyone thronging to the fair to see Zuckerman's Famous Pig. They announced that the judges had created a special prize for Wilbur. He wasn't the biggest pig at the fair, but surely the most unique. His future was now secure. The Zuckermans were too proud of owning such an illustrious pig to ever think of turning him into a blue plate special.

Overcome with joy and relief, Wilbur fainted. Fearing he had died, the judges were about to withhold his prize until Charlotte's unconventional subaltern, Templeton, nipped the prostrate porker in the tail, sparking him back to life. It was a tense moment. All Charlotte's work could have been for naught.

The entrepreneur's path to success can be fraught with ups and downs, but the intrepid spider had overcome uncommon obstacles. Charlotte had literally saved Wilbur's bacon by creating and scaling her business — truly a lean startup — from Wilbur's manure pile on Zuckerman's Farm to a glorious pen, buttermilk baths and fame as an award-winning "Most Extraordinary Pig" at the county fair.

Whenever you're in doubt — and who doesn't have those moments — remember the successful enterprise Charlotte created from the corner of an old barn in rural Maine. And she did all this as a single Mom, pregnant with 514 babies — talk about a succession plan!