American writer, and cultural anthropologist, Mary Bateson, once said “ The human species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.” 

I find that to be a profound (and also very accurate) quote. 

Our world is made of stories – stories create the world. We ourselves, I would argue, are made of stories as well. And the most important story – or at least the most persuasive –  is the story we tell ourselves about ourselves.   

To bring it home to the capitalist present – because if we can’t grow & profit from it, what’s the point? 😉 Good marketing is good storytelling. Great storytelling is great marketing. 

But I challenge you to think of marketing outside of the narrow confines of selling products, and the arena of, well, the Market. Though it clearly works there too. Think of marketing more holistically. 

As per OG sociologist Erving Goffman, we are constantly telling stories about ourselves, we are constantly marketing.  

We are marketing when we talk to our friends, our family and our colleagues. We are marketing at that job interview. During that lecture. At the store. On social media. 

Is this a phenomenon of our era or is this as old as humanity? 

Or older? 

Did Australopithecines practice story telling & practice marketing?

…if you don’t know what an Australopithecine is, brush up on your human evolution… like, right now. Google that shit & spend 5 minutes reading up on it. Pretty amazing stuff. If you don’t… it’s a human ancestor that lived ~1 to 5 million years ago. You’re welcome.). 

Did our hominid & hominin ancestors (again, google that shit) practice it? Do other species practice it? I don’t know, it’s food for thought. But that’s besides the point.

If you know me, you know I tend to go on tangents. If you don’t know me…I tend to go tangents.  

Anywho…

I think we live by & through stories. Our lives ARE & (eventually) BECOME stories, passed down from friend to friend, from generation to generation (if we are fortunate).

Sure, not all stories are ‘good’ – and many are damaging, in fact. But that’s different from plain bad storytelling.  

The thing is, we really don’t seem to mind stories about ‘bad’ things – we’re actually enthralled by them – rather, we detest bad storytelling. I think that’s one of the few human universals.    

What’s more, we understand & make sense of the world through stories. Once you adjust your lens you’ll start to see stories all around you. They are all around us, all the time.

There are good storytellers, and good stories, and there are also poor storytellers & poor stories.

Counter to our society’s story about itself,  I don’t think we are as faithful & concerned with Truth, as much as we are to stories – to good stories. 

A good story will always trump truth.  

A great story will become Truth.

Our most sacred truths are, after all, derived from stories, ARE stories. 

Think about that one for a bit.

And regardless how you feel about it, we all are bound to tell them & live through them – they are the medium of our perception.    

But make no mistake– stories can also be deceivious and dangerous.

Sometimes stories consume us.  

We can’t stop refreshing the feed. We struggle to overcome the stories we hold inside ourselves, about ourselves, those that limit us. We are saturated by news (aka stories) constantly.  

Stories are made to keep us interested, engaged, glued, and in some instances, to deceive & control us. 

Ultimately, the storyteller dictates to what end their story is meant to achieve. Whether they actually accomplish that depends on the audience & whether they are a skilled storyteller.   

My point, or at least one of them, because this post is admittingly everywhere at this stage: 

Get better at storytelling. 

Learn to see the stories around you. 

Ask yourself what story you are telling yourself, about yourself. And what story our society is telling itself about itself.  

Forget Truth.   

Ask instead:

Is it beneficial?  Is it (the story) moving you – Us – forward? If not – it behooves you – Us – to drop it.

And if you don’t see the stories in & around you – get better at observing. They’re there.

Tell a good story. It’ll take you far in life, and it may even be true.

And remember…with a great story, comes great responsibility.