The Power of Storytelling
A long time ago.. on an island far, far away.. a kid was born. Little did he know what telling stories would mean in his life..
Today the newest chapter to the Star Wars saga opens. It’s been nearly 40 years since George Lucas brought the first blockbuster that made us look up at the stars - and never see them the same again.
While many of us want to try and recapture a bit of the nostalgic feeling when we first watched Star Wars, it’s a bit like dating and relationships. You never forget your first, but you’re also not the same guy who went on that first date.
Like Luke Skywalker each of us has experienced our own hero’s journey. We’ve faced some of our scariest demons - only to discover that in the end it was really about facing ourselves.
For me a key part of that journey has been learning about what storytelling means and why it’s so much more than walking out with a nice feeling after 90 - 120 minutes.
Storytelling holds the key to everything we want out of life.
Artists use lies to tell the truth.
When Joseph Campbell wrote The Hero with a Thousand Faces, he wanted to share how from the minute we’re born it’s a constant process of going outside of our comfort zone and letting our former selves die only to be reborn.
If George Lucas was unsure about which direction to go in his life, he was even less sure lying in his hospital bed after being broadsided by a car going 90 mph. In a recent interview with Oprah Lucas said -
“In high school, I lived to be a race car driver. I was in a very bad accident and so then I reevaluated all that. I said maybe there’s something else for me. Maybe there’s a reason I survived this accident that nobody should have survived…”
Like that farm boy on Tatooine looking to the stars for answers Lucas struggled to find his place in the vast universe. Stuck in Modesto he dreamed of adventures far, far away.
Eventually, Lucas discovered his love of film through shooting and photographing races. He found his Obi-Wan in a well-known cinematographer of the time, Haskell Wexler who helped Lucas take his “first step into a larger world.”
Combining the nostalgia of his teenage years in the early 1960s and his love of racing, Lucas achieved his first box office hit by capturing this in American Graffiti. This success in turn allowed Lucas to take bolder artistic risks.
Stumbling on Campbell’s work about the hero’s journey brought Lucas’ vision into focus. He himself admits that if it hadn’t been for this influence, he may have still been writing Star Wars years later.
You Dance Your Life
My own journey as an entrepreneur has taken plenty of plot twists and turns. Blessed with meeting some of the top minds in business and creative arts I discovered along the way that we each have to experience our own hero’s journey.
Often it doesn’t start off as dramatic as finding out from stolen droids that you need to rescue a princess shortly before evil imperial stormtroopers kill off your foster parents. No, more than likely it’s a moment of curiosity - a spark that beckons you to follow it down a rabbit hole and see how far it goes.
Years ago that moment for me was catching a glimpse one night of a couple dancing in a gazebo at the end of a pier. Mesmerized I watched their moonlit silhouettes moving as one to the music of a boombox.
Somehow it seemed effortless. They flowed and floated like waves hitting the shore around them. That one image never left me when I finally walked into a dance studio years later to take my first lesson. [Cue training montage.]
To say that my early steps were the struggles of a newborn foal stumbling to gain its first steps would be generous. But eventually something happened and I found flow.
What’s important here is not my story of eventually helping to form a non-profit for promoting this dance as an art form, or even the amazing experiences I’ve had around meeting dancers around the world.
No, instead it’s how storytelling was connected to each moment.
Someone once told me that watching me dance said was like watching a story unfold with the music.
When I built playlists as a DJ, it was storytelling with the music to connect with the dancers; when I taught lessons, it was showing how an exercise applied both on and off the dancer floor.
Telling stories through “theme nights” drew dancers from far and wide for our events. Sharing what our message about dance and community meant made our national events instant sold-out successes.
May the Force Be With You
Research has shown that storytelling literally engages more parts of our brains. Our minds can’t tell the difference between what is actually experienced in the physical world and “just in our minds.”
Further studies have shown how mirror neurons create an empathy where we identify with someone else. So, not only does this accelerate learning, but we literally pick up others’ experiences like those macaque monkeys.
Who knows? If it wasn’t for the hero’s journey of some caveman facing their fears of fire and their harsh environment - and then telling their stories transforming not only themselves but others, we may still be huddled in some cold, dank cave eating cold dinosaur meat!
That’s the real power of storytelling - the ability to allow others to experience moments and in that process transform each other.
So, when I watch this new generation of heroes and starships light up theaters this week, I’m a different person - transformed by stories I’ve shared and those of others. But maybe for a moment I’m going to let myself be that ten year-old again in awe of the power of stories.
As I write this, my latest venture is sharing the stories of #IndieCreative entrepreneurs. More than just writers or film makers or musicians these folks are both artist and entrepreneur.
No matter what their medium - whether it’s written word, images, music or some combination of all of the above, indie creatives are transforming the world through sharing their own hero’s journey.
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