Your Life Is a Story – Become the Hero

My boss thought I was crazy, “You’re doing WHAT?!”  With an ear-to-ear grin, I repeated, “I’m leaving to start my own company.”  He was shocked that I quit my lucrative, executive-level job to leap into entrepreneurship.  Maybe, in retrospect, he had better foresight than me, because, like most journeys in life, I didn’t end up where I thought I’d be going. 

The hero sets off on a new adventure

Making the jump in 2007 was exciting, but at the same time scary and unsettling.

My partner and I spent two years mapping-out a detailed business plan; wooing investors; building a pipeline of deals; and, lining-up our financing.

We were pros in executing our business and had made a lot of money for the company that employed us.  Now, we were ready to work for ourselves.

We were confident.

We were excited.

And we were executing the plan perfectly, until we got the call from our lead investor on August 3, 2008:

“Guys, we love you.  But our company is hemorrhaging money.  We can’t fund your business anymore.  We have to pull out.  Best of luck to you.”

The hero fights for his dream

In August 2008 we were in the early innings of the Great Financial Crisis, a complete meltdown in the global financial markets caused by an overwhelming flood of sub-prime residential and commercial loan defaults.  (For an entertaining movie that explores the meltdown watch the Big Short.  Or for a funny but sad summary of the financial structuring that led to the crash watch this clip.)

When we hung up the phone with our investor, we struggled to get our minds around being shut-down.  We spent 2.5 years of our lives working from dawn to dusk to make our dream a reality.  

Like most entrepreneurs, we weren’t about to let our vision slip away easily, so we spent the next several weeks calling everyone we knew, manically trying to find a new investor.  But there was one, BIG problem – no one on the other end picked-up the phone.

Our new reality began to finally sink in, and it was gut wrenching.  The vision that we expected, and worked so long and hard for, was GONE.  

“Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring.” (Proverbs, 27:1 NLT)

The 3 parts to every story

I recently listened to Jeff Goins podcast “When I Became Me: Understanding the Life of an Artist as Story”.  Jeff explained that all story heroes go through a period when they think they’re on one path, but are suddenly on another.

Most often the new journey is forced, or thrust upon them.  Less frequently, the hero willingly makes the choice to change.  

But like in all great adventure tales, change must occur to create a new story.  Conflict must exist to create the catalyst for the hero to move from comfort to change.

As I listened to Jeff I realized that my life’s storyline is no different than those that play out in a great book or on the silver screen (well, minus the spaceships and monsters and saving the world thing).  How I respond to and pivot to meet my life experiences determines whether I’m the hero of my story, or simply a passive observer.

I am responsible for how I perform in every chapter of the story that is my life.  And, like in every good adventure tale, I view myself as the hero in each of the three main parts of a good story:

The beginning:  Life is good and normal and comfortable but then change happens.  Conflict rears its scary head, and the hero’s life is turned upside down.

The middle:  Nothing seems to go right for the hero, despair reigns, and hope is nearly lost.

The end:  The unexpected happens.  The future is recast.  The hero has changed, and there’s a pivot towards a new and exciting adventure.

The hero becomes the hero

As I look back upon my experience in 2008, I can see that it played out exactly like an excellent story.  

The global financial crisis tanked my first entrepreneurial venture and my life turned upside down.

I struggled to survive in an industry that was crushed and broken.

And, finally, I changed.  I cast a new vision and embarked on a different entrepreneurial adventure that is now 10+ years strong.

So maybe there is something helpful in thinking about each disruptive experience as a storyline in the many chapters of the novel that is called your life.  But, as I learned, you have to be the hero.  No one else can ever play that role for you.

Be Wise & Successful

1. Fun.  Who is your favorite adventure hero; can you identify the hero’s key life-changing experiences during the story’s beginning, middle, and end?

2. Reflect.  Pick two times in your life when you have been the hero.  Write the story out in three short paragraphs – beginning, middle and end.

3. Dream.  What storyline are you going through now?  Write down the conflict, how you are struggling, and three positive and exciting ways you’d like the story to end.