I love good stories.
To be honest, I like bad ones a lot of times too.
Do you ever stick your head into a room and someone is watching a TV show and you can instantly tell that it’s a really stupid show with a stupid plot…but somehow you can’t stop watching it?
I’m a sucker for a good story and often when others eyes wander off from a story-teller, my eyes are fixed on the person, hanging on every twist in the story.
It may have to do with the fact that I’m an auditory learner anyway, but stories just get me.
On an 8-hour drive home on Sunday, I was able to listen to two podcasts. One was called “Caliphate,” an in-depth look at reporter Rukmini Callimachi’s research into one of the most underestimated groups in the world: Isis.
The second was Tim Ferriss’ interview of Brandon Stanton, creator of the photo/story series know to the world as “Humans of New York.”
Getting into the gritty details of the lives of the people behind these things is so fascinating to me. Truly humanizing and understanding people for who they are, not only by the works they have accomplished — good or bad.
It often reminds me of the fact that we all enter this world naked and dependant. Yes. We each have different circumstances growing up, but each of us has the opportunity to do something. Some people, like Brandon Stanton, decided to work all day every day at something he loved and ended up making just enough to continue doing it.
Others, like those who turn to Isis, decide that a life of war with others is preferable to a life living with and helping others.
We all come from humble beginnings. Whether you were born rich or in a back alleyway, you came the same way everyone else did. The question is, are you going to be the bad story that everyone sits through even though they don’t like it or are you going to be the exciting story that actually does something with the life you have?
As a wise man once told me, there are no primitive people in this world, only primitive cultures.
If your story sucks, no problem. There’s always time to hit the climax still.