Speaking factually, not hypothetically, you want me on your team.
I'm the guy who split his check three ways and raided dumpsters for food, just to make sure everyone got paid. As a private contractor, I have more bosses than I know what to do with: 9 clients at the moment, 7 repeat offenders; with each and every single one of them I don't leave a discussion until I have received a concrete request, established a delivery schedule, and read the whole plan back to the client to reassure everyone that their direction has been received exactly as they want it. If a client comes up and says "I want you to go into overdrive" I am not leaving until he or she explains what is really wanted: for me to produce a rush-ordered video before the end of the month, on top of the two I already have in the pipeline.
And I am also lucid enough to know without being told, when my feedback is wanted, and when my colleague just wants me to keep my mouth shut and listen to him or her talk about the Learning Annex book he or she was reading yesterday.
Fyi- you just proved the opposing view by selling yourself with a great story.
Conclusion: Stories work when they feel authentic and don't suck. That's why all those movies have all those random AA scenes. It's an easy cop out for injecting "this sh-t's real" vibe in order not to lose the viewers to the lagging plot.
Not exactly sure why this is relevant or where you wanted to take this, but ok:
in that case you didn't sell anything. You created scarcity because you convinced someone that there are not many like you. You simply created desire in the other person which stays unmet in that moment because, as you say, you weren't for sale. He/she realizes that they desire the traits you have in who they're looking for, so they try to find someone like you elsewhere.
the flipside would be: some person next to you on a plane... incidentally and unintentionally, and in a way that doesn't annoy you, a relaxed casual no-bs conversation starts quietly between you two. At some point they drift into talking about something they're building. By the end, randomly, you feel like this is someone you would like to work with/for. Even though your skills turn out to be relevant, they're not hiring.
I'm the guy who split his check three ways and raided dumpsters for food, just to make sure everyone got paid. As a private contractor, I have more bosses than I know what to do with: 9 clients at the moment, 7 repeat offenders; with each and every single one of them I don't leave a discussion until I have received a concrete request, established a delivery schedule, and read the whole plan back to the client to reassure everyone that their direction has been received exactly as they want it. If a client comes up and says "I want you to go into overdrive" I am not leaving until he or she explains what is really wanted: for me to produce a rush-ordered video before the end of the month, on top of the two I already have in the pipeline.
And I am also lucid enough to know without being told, when my feedback is wanted, and when my colleague just wants me to keep my mouth shut and listen to him or her talk about the Learning Annex book he or she was reading yesterday.