Thursday, December 14, 2006

Storybooking Your Business

By Dr. Sharon Murdoch
Founder of the Storybooking Process
Co-founder of Heritage Makers

Throughout my years as a teacher, mother and grandmother, I have seen the magic of story. I have pondered its power knowing that it is story that endures the generations, provides meaning to lives and has a healing power beyond the strongest drugs.

Recently, Melanie Davis, a Heritage Maker Director in Texas sent out an email. Upon reading it, I felt again the energy of why this company started some six years ago in the basement of Chris Crandall’s home, and why it will grow to financial heights beyond our imaginations! It is all about the magic of story!

“My name is Hondo Goodrich. By way of introduction, I would like to tell you about an event that gave me direction for the rest of my life. I graduated from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas. That is where I learned an important concept that has led me to this instant. I had a professor who gave his class a final test. The test consisted of one question. The one question consisted of one word. The word was: Why? Since this was an essay question, the students began writing feverously to fill up the essay book hoping to say something that might convince the professor to give them a passing grade.

However, one student aced the test by answering the one word test question, why, with a one word answer, because. That story taught me that why and because can be applied to just about anything we do.

“In March of 1945, a young girl died in Bergen-Belsen. Bergen-Belsen was a German prison camp. The young girl was named Anne Frank. After the war, her uncle visited the secret annex where Anne and her family lived until they were compromised and sent to the prison. He found some scattered papers and upon close examination, he realized that Anne had been keeping a journal while living in the secret hide-a-way. These papers were subsequently published as “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Why did she keep a diary? Because, she wanted to be remembered. She had a story that like all of us, needed to be told.
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