Story Driven: You don't need to compete when you know who you are

by Bernadette Jiwa

every decision we make is dependent on what we prioritise.

Mahatma Ghandi said, ‘Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.’

Consistently being true to yourself and true to your word is one of the secrets to living a good life.

Marketing should magnify the truth, not manipulate a message. Our job isn’t to get everyone to believe

Knowing your backstory and its relevance (either as an individual or as a company) enables you to pick up and weave the often loose threads of your past to create an emergent identity in the present.

Armed with this narrative and unique identity, you find the direction and meaning that become the scaffold for your brand.

The awareness of the particular circumstances and events that made us who we are grounds and grows us, as individuals, companies and societies.

‘It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.’ —Roy Disney

‘People work better when they know what the goal is and why.’ —Elon Musk

We are driven by our innate psychological need for competence, relatedness and autonomy. We are hardwired to fulfil our potential. We choose to do things that don’t directly or materially benefit us because it feels good to do them and because doing them contributes to our wellbeing. We are our best selves when we have a sense of control over our destiny and feel supported by our community to achieve mastery. We flourish when we do work we’re proud of and are nurtured in a supportive social environment.

They also want to have a sense of autonomy and purpose and feel like they are stakeholders in the company’s future. Successful businesses are powered by people who feel fulfilled. Having a strong sense of purpose is good for people, and it’s good for business, too.

Today’s customers want to know that you care about more than just making money. If you don’t understand why your business exists beyond to turn a profit, or if you’re not communicating your purpose, then you’re making it harder for people to get behind you.

When you know what you stand for, you have absolute clarity about the reason you’re the best choice for the people you want to serve—and so do they.

Clinton explains her shortcomings in her best-selling book, What Happened. ‘In politics, the personal narrative is vital,’ she says.

But my story—or at least how I’ve always told it—was never the kind of narrative that made everyone sit up and take notice. We yearn for that showstopping tale—that one-sentence pitch that captures something magical about America; that hooks you and won’t let you go. Mine wasn’t it. Yet there is another story of my life; one that I believe is as inspiring as any other. I wish I had claimed it and told it more proudly.

As the interview is coming to a close, Hillary talks about her mission to make women understand that they have a voice—her focus now no longer on winning, but on the contribution she might make going forward.

Even if on paper you are the most qualified, even if you can demonstrate that your product is superior, even if you have a watertight rationale to demonstrate that you are the best choice by a mile, people will be reluctant to support you unless they believe you.

Without a purpose, we don’t know why we’re on the journey. But without a vision, we don’t know the destination.

Your purpose is why you do what you do today and every day. Your vision is your aspiration for the future—the contribution you or your work will make.

If a vision is a distant goal in the future, the strategy is the route to getting there—the plan for realising your vision.

Having a strategy enables you to ask better tactical questions. How will you achieve your vision? What should you prioritise? Where do you need to allocate resources? What skills do you have? What capabilities do you need to build? What comes first and why? Strategy is the how.

Business building is not necessarily linear, but it is a progression.

‘A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business.’ —Henry Ford

‘one of the really tough things is figuring out what questions to ask,’ but ‘once you figure out the question, then the answer is relatively easy.’ His question became, What things will have a great impact on the future of humanity’s destiny?

He is less a CEO chasing riches than a general marshaling troops to secure victory. Where Mark Zuckerberg wants to help you share baby photos, Musk wants to ... well ... save the human race from self-imposed or accidental annihilation.

Understanding what matters most to us and discovering who we might become, and then help as a result, is the real work of our lives. Understanding how our strengths and our stories change how others see themselves is the work we’re all here to do.

Each of us has a choice. We get to choose what to care about and create. We’re the ones who decide what to prioritise today and what it’s important to strive for tomorrow. We can decide whether to compete or to matter. And even when we don’t get to choose the work, how we do it is always a choice.

What does your good day look like? What are your reasons to be alive and doing what you do as only you can?

Because what we do today affects who we’ll become tomorrow. We have to make sure we don’t forgo asking the important questions along the way. And more, we must do everything we can to deliberately create the good days that are the making of us.

Our collective prosperity depends on motivated individuals who know how they can contribute. When we are true t...