Posts Tagged ‘Famous Stories’
Blankster is back. I chose today, April 23, to relaunch my blog on personal branding and storytelling. The last few weeks have been spent on website technical development. But now it is time to get back to the task at hand: helping all of us find our unique and compelling story.
You may be asking, why am I spending time and money on this activity? Simply because I get the sense that in this world where home is Facebook, Blackberries are more pervasive than books, IM is preferred over phone calls, we change jobs on average nine times in a career, and online dating is more popular than face to face introductions - we have lost a sense of the power of stories. How can we tell a powerful provocative story in a one line text? How can we feel a sense of purpose when we jump from organization to organization every couple of years?
It is time to cut through the clutter and develop lasting, meaningful relationships based on the connections we make through our most authentic and interesting stories.
There is a classic novel that illustrates the virtues of telling authentic and interesting stories. Anyone remember Heart of Darkness from AP English? Author Joseph Conrad, who learned English as a fifth language, tells a story about a protagonist named Marlow who is sent to investigate the atrocities of another named Kurtz, who apparently has been murdering hundreds or thousands in Africa shortly after 1900. It turns out Kurtz wrote a manifesto decrying the African people and outlining his views on society. Marlow becomes intrigued by Kurtz, a man who has perpetrated genocide. Marlow rationalizes he sees Kurtz as a remarkable man because “he had something to say. He said it.” This is not to say that racism and appaling violence should be respected. It is an acknowledgement that it is quite remarkable in this world to find someone with a story and purpose.
As Marlow watches Kurtz die, he explains
“He was a remarkable man. After all, this was the expression of some sort of belief, it had candour, it had conviction, it had a vibrating note of revolt in its whisper, it had the appaling face of a glimpsed truth - the strange commingling of truth and hate.”
Conrad’s illustrative prose suggests it is a great virtue to have conviction, passion and the courage to tell your story.
Who is willing to follow me into the Heart of Darkness, a place where we find our trueselves, for better or for worse, and dare to be true in our expression to others?
