Every endeavor
starts with story.

Sometimes your story will transform millions of people's lives and propels humanity forward. Other times your story flips a switch in the mind of a single individual who now has a new (and different) understanding of the world. Sometimes the story you create gives us a new way to solve seemingly intractable problems or offers a new approach to seeing ourselves.

Sometimes we can articulate the story with ease. Other times we struggle to utter even the basics: because to communicate the value of your offering you feel like you must first explain the whole mechanism and ecosystem and the existing unnecessary turmoil and so you end up talking yourself in circles until you finally find a way to describe what you are doing. But by then you have exhausted your listener and lost their fragile trust. What you need is to tell the same story in four words or fewer.

Other times we can’t bear to admit the true story that operates behind the scenes, either because we lack the emotional insight into the forces at work, or because we can’t face the pain or hope of our actual dreams. But no matter the endeavor, it starts with story.

Bend the arc of humanity’s progress or succeed in a more narrow pursuit of excellence… do what you will… just know that design starts with story.

So what story will you tell?