Attributed to American film producer Samuel Goldwyn, one of my favorite quotes is “When I want your opinion I will give it to you.” Yesterday, it struck me that in this famous malapropism, Goldwyn inadvertently touched the idea of controlling the narrative. What prompted this thought was an outstanding TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie, “The danger of a single story” that came my way via a Torben Bernhard (@torbenb) tweet.
 
Her talk is a brilliant discussion of how stories can narrow our view of the world. More importantly, she captures the reality that the stories that get told are a reflection of power – especially the power to tell the story of another person and make it the definitive story of that person.

Ultimately, I think it’s dangerous to accept stories at face value. And while this clearly applies to events in the world at large, I think there is a more “up close and personal” application of the ideas in her talk. Specifically, the need to question the stories about ourselves. While a little bit of feedback from others can be a good thing, it’s important to read it in the context of what we know about ourselves.

Knowing ourselves, of course, can take some tough introspective work. Yet, the risk of not doing it is to accept the single story view that others have of us. And that, means we can get trapped in a story that is not truly ours. So, own your life; find and tell your story!