We’ve seen the drive for sales and market share go hand in hand with picking the kids up from school.
And whilst we live in a society where poverty and hardship are not too common, we still hear of stories of endeavour and challenges. These stories are unique. They are important and they need to be told.
So yes, this commentary in a business paper is about life.
We have families, we have personal lives, we have community, and we run our businesses. No one area can exist well without the support of another.
Our role for future generations is to enable stories to be told and not lost. Stories such as Leonard Keysor who in Gallipoli caught live grenade-like weapons and threw them back to the enemy.
His bravery on occasions lasted 50 hours and “is one of the most spectacular individual feats of the war”, as noted by the historian Anthony Staunton in his book “Victoria Cross: Australia’s Finest and the Battles They Fought”.
Most of us can’t fathom such challenging times when sacrifices were made. Unfortunately we don’t have an interview with him as he passed away in 1951.
Stories are sometimes of public interest when they touch the masses in an emotive or unique way.
Steve Jobs and his time at Apple is a good example of this. His life story was of tremendous public interest when he died of cancer in 2011.
However notable publications after his demise, painted in him as a greedy, selfish egomaniac. Some family members and colleagues, questioned how Jobs lacked skills in teamwork according to one publication, yet he had been so successful.
Unfortunately there are few moments on camera where he talks about his own professional achievements, dilemmas and personal journey, especially as he reached his final days.
So whilst today we now have many devices that record our movements, on camera, social media, even when we go for coffee each day, we haven’t told our story.
At every opportunity we’ve put our stamp on something. The days of being anonymous are long, long gone.
This makes the case for telling our story even more relevant. We can’t afford to keep it too short as we’re leaving a record, and preserving our history. We also need to keep it unscripted and say it like it is.
Earlier this year, whilst meeting with business owners, we heard many personal stories. These stories gave us a deeper understanding of ambitions, struggles and family support, or lack thereof.
Yet with people moving on in their lives, we heard stories also begin to slip away. We needed to create a mechanism of preserving history.
We developed a new product called Know My Life. This work is nearing completion we will launch in August 2015.
Know My Life produces professional quality videos on people’s lives through interviews that can be viewed privately or made public. Sounds simple, but a poignant product such as this currently doesn’t exist.
Our aim will be for each production to tell the story on someone’s life and thoughts of their future.
The Sydney Hills Business Chamber and Know My Life will discuss Business and The Community on August 12 at the Hills Lodge in Castle Hill.
This event will be a launch for Know My Life and have in attendance notable members of business and the community. Stories will be shared and made available during the launch.
On reflection, we have our generations behind us where most stories of individuals have been lost forever. We can’t afford to miss opportunity to tell our story to generations ahead of us.
