Storytime, telling the family story – my weekly perspective

Every family has a story and every business has its beginnings. ?With all due respect to our current day reliance on instant gratification, instant messaging and instant pudding…your business has taken time to be built, and rarely are businesses overnight successes. ?This being the case, you should think about what your stories are that made your business successful.? Stories are the traditional method of passing on knowledge and history within families and breathe more life into the why or what you did and how you family was blessed and became successful.

Your story. ?How do you start? ?

Think about some challenges and difficulties (sometimes even failures) and the decisions made which resulted in your successes when you overcame these obstacles. ? Some questions to ask yourself when forming these stories:

1. What are the family values that you relied upon to carry through these challenging times? ?
2. Was there an event, breakthrough or a person that really helped you or inspired you? ?
3. What were your circumstances of you and your parents/family and more importantly, how did you react to those circumstances?? We all had to come from somewhere.

Once you have reflected on these questions, then think about how (and when) you will be sharing these stories with your children, stakeholders and the future inheritors of your business/enterprise. ?Some cultures rely solely upon storytelling to pass on the history of its culture and its people. ?

Try this.

Here is one person’s views on storytelling as motivation: Storytelling video

Learn, think, apply!