When I was younger, my dad told me about business. He told
me a lot of things, but the one that stuck with me the most is that everyone is
selling something. Some people are selling physical items, some are selling
services. The one that really got my attention, though, were the people who
were selling what my father called “hopes and dreams.” These are your teachers,
your politicians, your artists. These are the people who choose to sell the
idea that life can be better, and that these individuals can provide a key
ingredient.
Ever since this conversation, I’ve been thinking about what
I’m selling. Having worked in both retail and food service, I have experience
selling physical items and services. My career goals, though, have always been
in the hopes and dreams department.
One such profession got me thinking. I was watching “The
Newsroom,” a show written by Aaron Sorkin, who was also behind my favorite TV
show, “The West Wing.” Sorkin is famous for his workplace dramas, where he
takes viewers on a journey to understand a particular life for a certain group
of people. Focusing on how the political landscape impacts the people, the real
human beings in the White House, was what made “The West Wing” as brilliant a
show as it was. This only continued in “The Newsroom.” Sorkin’s ability to
craft the emotional experience of working and living in a news television
company is what makes his storytelling so incredible.
What I came to realize was that the best thing I can imagine
someone selling is a story. Crafting a world and characters allows an
individual to step into a new world, and to experience things from a whole new
way.
We, as readers, viewers, and observers, love the emotion of
a story. We know what it’s like to feel elation by the success of our favorite
protagonist. We know what it’s like to cry because of a main character’s loss. We
even know what it’s like to fall in love with the bad guy, not because that character
was inherently loveable, but because the author took us on a journey that
concluded with empathy.
I love to tell stories. My life goal is to write a novel,
and I have been working on story ideas for as long as I can remember.
Storytelling in all its forms has always fascinated me. From books to speeches, movies and jokes, I
enjoy both creating and observing the storytelling of others.
The best part about a story, though, is that it’s the
closest thing we have to real life that isn’t. We get to feel all of the highs
and all of the lows that life has to offer, while at the end of the day, we get
to walk away. We get to feel all of the emotion without the forced commitment
that the real world brings.
My blog was my first real experience with storytelling. The stories
I have told are exclusively non-fiction, yet as a general rule they are telling
a very opinionated story. I have crafted my ability to write and to tell.
Learning to lead my readers on a journey is a craft that I hope to sell for as
long as possible. I am selling hopes and dreams, one word at a time.
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