The Stories We Tell. The role of stories in academia, cultural entrepreneurship and everyday life

      Аннотация: As a cultural entrepreneur, I have always been fascinated by the complex nature of entrepreneurs and stories told about them. This work made me recognize an important lesson in life which is highly relevant for cultural entrepreneurs and organizations. The ‘lesson’ is the following: We cannot live the story of others and it is not an option to use successful recipes from the past. The only way to realize our goals is to discover our personal path, our unique journey. Everybody has a personal story to tell: a special, distinctive history that distinguishes us, humans from each other. During my research I came to realize that the story of a personal journey is really similar to the life cycle and challenges of organizations. If cultural entrepreneurs and people working in the cultural sector were able to learn from continuously occurring patterns in life — whether it is a business, private or social event — and ‘read’ behind stories emerging in everyday situations, it could already create the knowledge and space that we need to cope with the challenges of the 21th century.

Ключевые слова: entrepreneur, Narrative, storyteller, storytelling, cultural entrepreneurship