Seeking out, exploring and collecting lesser-known experiential stories of entrepreneurs, innovators and changemakers.

“Storytelling is universal and is as ancient as humankind. Before there was writing, there was storytelling. It occurs in every culture and from every age. It exists (and existed) to entertain, to inform, and to promulgate cultural traditions and values.” National Geographic

Storytelling is ancient.  Storytelling is ultra-modern.  Storytelling is part of the way humans share, understand, connect and discover existing and new (and unexpected!) knowledge.  Storytelling is intimately connected with research that supports human and more than human flourishing.  Storytelling helps us re-imagine, discover, design and build ways of life that honors and invites us to bring our gifts to the world.

I have now been deeply involved with entrepreneurship, innovation and changemaking (or EIC when a verb, or EIC as a noun when referring to the blurry categories of Entrepreneurs, Innovators and Changemakers) for over a decade as an academic and most of my life as a human.  In this time, I have engaged with thousands of these folks, taught and learned with many hundreds and worked very closely with dozens myself as a veteran EIC myself.

In my humble opinion, the stories being told of EICs are narrow in focus and feed a narrative that leans heavily on grind and accomplishment all in the name of ever expanding monetary wealth, individualism, fame and/or power.  And this makes some sense (I say this with some, but not deep cynicism).  This larger narrative feeds dominant culture economic and social systems and justifies all sorts of EICs meeting market-based  or social-recognition incentives.  Meet a need out there so you can scale.  Meet a need out there so you can get funded.  Meet a need out there so you can build your resume to be able to do it again and again…these are the hero stories that predominate the popular press (and frankly, the academic literature as well).  

And they are predictable.  Idea!  Drop everything and pursue the passion.  Struggle. Grind. Fail. Overcome. Victory!  Money flows In.  Recognition gained. Rinse and Repeat.  How do I know?  Well, just ask an entrepreneur who has been at it for a while for their elevator speech on their story…

Yet, this is not really the full story.  First off, the full breadth of those involved in EIC activity does not seem to line up with the popular image of who an entrepreneur, innovator or changmaker supposedly is.  Secondly, the primary motives of wealth, fame and power simply do not match the data well enough to be the full story, nor do these motives match those who are actually doing what EICs do (even as they actively reject the identity of entrepreneur). This is not to say that EICs are not motivated by these things…it is more a matter of degree, breadth and depth of the real stories being lived out as humans self-discover, grow and develop as they engage with the world around them.

So, the Entrepreneur’s’ Story Projects will serve the purpose of seeking out and exploring lesser-known experiential stories of entrepreneurs, innovators and changemakers.

Why? To discover.  To explore.  To share.  

Sharing  human-centered stories of entrepreneurs, innovators and changemakers as they individually and collectively self-discover, grow, change and impact themselves and the world around them.

“Stories help us understand others and ourselves. We feel empathy with the characters we encounter in stories. This ability to learn from stories is a skill that will help our students throughout their lives. In addition to academic goals, stories enrich lives and provide guidance to living.” Paths to Literacy

There is something about sharing stories that is deeply meaningful and impactful.  Storytelling is not so much about facts and figures, but more about the messy human reality that gets cleansed and whitewashed in a short pitch or through answering a structured survey question.  Stories help us dig into basic question such as Who is this person or persons, inside and out? What is going on in their experience, inside and out? Where is it all taking place, inside and out? When does it all happen, inside and out?  How did and does it all unfold, inside and out?  Why did they do what they have done and why did it all evolve and turn out this way, inside and out?  WHY?

“For millenniums, humans have told stories to connect, relate and weave imaginative truths that enable us to see one another more clearly with compassion and courage. Finding empathy is a difficult challenge but also the most human of the reasons we tell stories. Often, we explain and express so that we can be seen or so that others can empathize with us. Often, effective persuading means truly stepping into another’s point of view. Often, we entertain to bring joy and light not only to our audience but to ourselves as creators.  We tell stories because we are human. But we are also made more human because we tell stories.”  -Amy Gorman, Poet and Author

From sharing multiple stories iteratively, patterns start to emerge, themes start to develop.  We start to see.  We get more curious. We see consistencies and inconsistencies. We learn. We grow.  We pass on wisdom.  All in a way that is more full and rich and somehow connected with our humanity in ways that simple facts and figures can’t do alone.  We are human and we are made more human.  That is why.

“Although the vehicle through which they are conveyed might change over time, the inner heart of these stories remains constant. During each stage of human existence, we see the recurrence of stories with similar themes. Birth, aging, sickness and death; the sadness of departure and the joy of reunion. These are universal experiences. But the details of how these themes are approached and narrated evolve during different eras and take on different forms depending on circumstances like background, race and gender.

Countless individual stories come together to form the collective story of all human knowledge and emotion. Some stories are short, others are long, and some are unclear and incomplete — but they are all a part of our evolution. As we move through life, we, too, become storytellers. As our lives ascend like a spiral, so, too, our stories are constantly elevated.” Fang Fang, author and LuXun Literary Prize Winner

So, the Entrepreneur’s’ Story Projects will share human-centered stories of entrepreneurs, innovators and changemakers as they individually and collectively self-discover, understand, grow, change and impact themselves and the world around them.

Entrepreneur’s’: Individually and Collectively creating, exploring and sharing our stories

“Storytelling is also the gateway to truth-telling, which helps inform our opinions, decision-making and self-views. Sharing our stories allows us to come together, declare what our values are and act on them. Without storytelling, we would not have the layers of history that impact our present and influence the future. It’s impossible to imagine a world in which our ancestors did not share their journeys of enslavement, persecution, horror, honor, hope and triumph.” Wendell Pierce. Actor and Recording Artist

The Entrepreneur’s and Entrepreneurs’ Story. Stories of entrepreneurs, innovators and changemakers do not play out in a vacuum, yet, you would think this was the essence of individual heroism, a narrow cultural lens for sure.  The hero worship is clean and such an easy story to share…and, it is simply not the truth even as we tend to tell it as truth.  The stories are messy, iterative, personal, interpersonal, all over the place, do not play nicely with sequence and are very difficult to put your finger on as the “truth”.  While stories may have a central character, that central character by definition can’t go it alone as an entrepreneur, innovator or changemaker.  Entrepreneurship, innovation and changemaking is deeply human and deeply interactive and through telling and retelling of multiple stories, we can begin to acknowledge, understand and move forward on human and more than human challenges and opportunities.

“No matter what stage humankind finds itself in, stories are always right beside us, becoming our most kind and enduring companions. From the earliest moments as babies when we begin to imitate sounds, we are already intently listening to stories. They come from our family, our neighbors, from the fields and the streets, from books. From these stories, we learn about principles like justice, rites, the nature of wisdom and what it means to have faith; we come to understand good and evil, civilization and culture, intelligence and ignorance.” Fang Fang, author

So, the Entrepreneur’s’ Story Projects will seek these experiential stories of individuals and collectives. 

A 10 Year Voyage of Discovery

“The human mind is all about connections. A single neuron, thought or fact makes no sense; it’s the links and underlying maps we create that allow us to parse reality. Thousands of years ago, perhaps around a campfire, early storytellers must have discovered the previously hidden power of the human mind. Today, we latch onto stories as if our brains are hungry for them. They allow us to organize knowledge and pass it on to others. Storytelling may very well be what made us fully conscious.” Michelle Thaller, Astronomer, Science Communicator.

A single story will not do it.  A single time will not do it. These will not make the type of sense we seek.  We will seek to be more fully conscious through the longer haul.  Ten years is still a blink, yet, it is an eternity for typical academic research and scholarship in entrepreneurship, innovation and changemaking.  We will allow for the stories to emerge, and we will voyage from WWU to the world and back, sit around many campfires to learn, to explore to share and to perhaps become more fully conscious. 

“Art and science aren’t different things, you know; they’re two faces of the same coin. And what makes a good writer — or any other sort of artist — is the same thing that makes a good scientist: the ability to perceive patterns within what looks like chaos.” Diana Gabaldon, author

There and Back Again.  So, the Entrepreneur’s’ Story Projects will take place over a 10 year voyage of discovery that will take us from Western Washington University expanding out to Bellingham to the Shores of the Salish Sea and ultimately to the World and Back Again.  This is and will be social-science research founded on a storytelling lens and set of methodologies.  10 years of small acts of connections (hopefully with some around campfires!), with everyday ordinary folks to add to the light.

“I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit