My grandmother was a storyteller. She wrote 10 or 11 books, mostly of children’s stories, and always had a story to tell. (As she got older, the stories got more fantastical. She worked as a simultaneous translator in the 1950s, and was a spy. Well, not really a spy, but she had to take documents to some shady people.)
Storytelling resonates with me more strongly than any other single sociological/community building concept.
Think about it. The first written communication was a story.
Pictures of deers and hunters with oversized spears (even then, we men exaggerated), running through trees and mountains.
We learn about our world through stories.
Stories are told each night on the news, and people make trillions and trillions of dollars, if the stories are told in just the right way.
I saw the movie Hugo this afternoon, and it was really a story about telling stories. It was about the heartbreak felt by a man, who no longer felt his stories were being heard, yet they were captured in the dreams of a young boy who struggled to find his place in a world that didn’t want him.
Story telling is an art. Its an amazing talent when its coupled with the desire to provide value, real value through the tale itself.
Yet, stories have a dark side, and not just around the campfire, but when we believe that the story is more important than the truth.
The world has been lying to us about what its like to be an entrepreneur.
What do you mean that Zuckerberg and friends worked 24 hours a day for months and months in a smelly small space filled with nothing but nerds? Where was JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE DAMMIT!
We have decoupled the story teller from the story, and apply value to each separately.
I see it happen all the time with entrepreneurs, who believe in “what a founder is” and how “an entrepreneur should act,” that they forget their primary purpose is to build a company and make decisions regardless of the prettiness of the action (or reaction), but based in the righteousness of the conclusion.
Raising money is not the story. It is a step.
Getting press is not the story. It is a step.
You are not the story. You are the shoulders on which your startup should stand for all to see.
Take a moment and think to yourself, what is the story you are telling? What do your employees, investors, customers think of your story?
If your story is not telling the world that your company is 1) adding enormous value; or 2) that it has a deep belief in its mission, then perhaps you are telling the wrong story.
And, most importantly, if you are letting others (including the tech press) dictate what your story should be, you are fucked.
The story of your company should capture the dreams of your users, employees and investors, and I can guarantee that none of them are dreaming about you.
