Everyone “Has A Great Story”
One of the latest trends in business is to talk about people “with great stories.” Whether you’re ordering a sandwich or getting money advice, these days people are quick to tell you that the founder of the company or the person that baked the bread, or the inventor of your banking app “has a great story.”
I have two problems with the idea that someone “has a great story.”
The first is that everyone has a great story. (If you don’t believe me, please consider that Oprah Winfrey built her empire on this idea.) If someone doesn’t have a great story, it isn’t that they’re lacking key elements in their background like overcoming adversity or finding a purpose, it’s simply that they don’t know how to tell their story.
Having a great story isn’t a fixed value or a personality trait. Having a great story is just another skill set that needs to be taught like you would send in experts to help people learn bookkeeping or leadership skills or how to pitch to investors.
Second, saying someone “has a great story” seems to have become shorthand for explaining why women, people of color, and those from non-traditional backgrounds have a seat at the table in business.
No one ever tells you that a straight, white man “has a great story.” It’s just assumed that straight, white men involved in business are qualified for the positions they hold and deserve respect.
“Having a great story” has become a preemptive statement to explain why certain people are in the room. And please don’t get me wrong — I love a great story as much as the next person. I just also happen to think that we’d be better off if we accepted that women, people of color, and people from non-traditional backgrounds ALSO belong in the room — without explanation or excuse.
Having a great story doesn’t need to become another prerequisite we put on interactions to exclude people from the conversation or a seat at the table.
I don’t want there to be entrepreneurs in the ether scared to champion their ideas because they don’t know what their story is while straight, white men aren’t thinking twice about getting in front of customers and investors.
Stories shouldn’t become the newest currency we use to get ahead in a system that doesn’t value women and people of color as equals. We need to change the system, not the ways we make exceptions in that system.
Story is powerful and transformative, and the greatest story would be rebuilding the whole system to best benefit all rather than simply championing a few that can master this moment.