My story of rediscovery starts in college.
I studied architecture—it was the ultimate design discipline. You create using materials, light, and psychology to envision places for a culture’s rituals—the sacred and the profane, the public and the private, the personal and the spectacle. I fell in love with these dualities and within architecture, there are many:
- sacred and profane
- private and public
- light and dark
- solid and void
- inside and outside
- wet and dry
- transparent and opaque
- thick and thin
- ground and air
I think you get the idea. These dualities are just reflections of our reality—the spaces we inhabit, the feelings inside us, and the experiences we have. This is indeed related to eastern philosophies in the sense that their dualities also reflect reality. Duality is a great way to explain and perceive.
However, in my senior year, I had two setbacks.
The first: in my fall semester, I failed to do well in our school’s senior design competition. Winners spent the summer in Europe studying, living, and breathing the past while imagining a future we would help create. I had dreamed of this for years. Every professor and upper-level student who I was mentored by had participated and showed me just how impactful it could be. After the competition, that dream was over and it left a bitter feeling.
The second: as I registered for my spring and final semester I learned that I had issues with my degree requirements—specifically with three electives. I had to pick new courses and by then my options were slim.
A friend who was an engineering major was taking a short story writing course to fill an English requirement—I luckily registered for the last spot. The other two courses I found were called The Philosophy of Art and Business Ethics. At the time I was happy as my only real concern was graduation, not what these courses offered.
I hope you can see that these three courses were more impactful than that—this wouldn’t be much of a story if they weren’t…
Business Ethics showed that your word means everything and that an honest and consistent commitment to service to your customer—whoever that may be—is the most ethical thing you can do. Each one of us must live up to that standard.
The Philosophy of Art explored the concept of art vs science throughout history. Science is factual and takes a larger field of our daily view, but only art can help us feel and then believe in what science presents. It takes myth-making within our society to share what we believe with future generations and the only way to make a myth is with art.
Finally, the short story writing course opened my eyes to another amazing way to create. First, imagine the architecture you can build in your mind as a setting for a story—it can defy the laws of physics if you want. Next, imagine the sacred rituals performed in those places and the myths that get told. Finally, imagine the characters with stories you can invent and celebrate as they help create these myths and practice these rituals.
I graduated, thankful I took those courses. As I left campus behind and moved into my adult life, their impact slowly faded. I have always been ethical, but I know at times that I lost the lessons of art and storytelling. I went from knowing to unknowing.
Sometimes though, you get lucky and rediscover what you once knew. I am lucky.
I rediscovered these ideas as I took the One Funnel Away Challenge. Storytelling is how you make your dream customers feel something—then believe something—about you and your offers. Your offer will never be the solution your dream customers have been looking for without a good story.
Fire Came Later is the product of this rediscovery. Each day I grow inside these past ideas that are new again and I hope our community members can grow in the same way. FCL teaches how to remember who you are, the stories you have inside yourself, and how to turn them into myths for your own community. I’ve learned this is the only way to help your dream customers turn their hopes and desires into success.
I have shifted into knowing again. Join us here at FCL.
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P.S. I did go on the study abroad trip after all. After I had made peace with the disappointment, I learned my GPA was good enough and a spot was available. That experience taught me the importance of long-term hard work and the appreciation of others, their stories, myths, and rituals. I could never be the storyteller I am without that experience.
