Transcript

Take control of the narrative | Alain Yav | TEDxBoulevardTriomphal

muah-muah once upon a time in the forest a small village of animals deep deep deep in the forest animals were living happily together of course you know the lion lion king zebra Tullio parts all of them living in peace together and in that in that village one day there was a drought no more water and it all started dying dying one after the other so the King the king lion called everybody together in the place of the village and said my people we have to do something we otherwise the Ogura perish there is a village next door in that village there is an old magician he has the secret to save us in between the two villages there is a big monster I want the bravest of us to run to the village and find a solution elephant goes too bad he can't make it and he gets beaten up in the runs runs back to the village dunya pad also tries and runs back it doesn't work and everybody tries the lion and and eventually there is the little rabbit who goes oh can I try the King goes come on not you everybody goes not you you stupid please let me try please let me try eventually say okay go well I'll catalog store it I can tell you that story forever that story is the story of Kabu Kabu Kabu Kabu cycle is there a bit little rabbit in soily is the little not here not here a bit a little not here I'm it eventually goes on fights the thing kills the monster gets the solution and the village gets going back again this is a story that my grandfather used to tell us when he used to go on holiday in lacasa by the fireplace and whatever I'm telling us this story so you realize that I've been brought up we've story since I was a kid since I was a baby stories a big part of my life and much my my imagination of course later on at school you know we had the sort of worsted version Cinderella little and everything and it was it was it was funny he was fantastic at six year old I discovered comics I discovered data I read everything that tell picabo's everything and I read everything I could find that got crazy about really I remember reading the Bible when I was twelve year old already as a I said no though television have to be grown as well I mean not me there's a lot of young people here so you won't know this is the ballet Andra the ballet Andra is is a big Papillion Jaa hip fantastic musical that was showing on with what watching on TV as kids that was tell you know relating the story of all the Congolese kings from Cuba to Lou but everything until the days of today it was amazing I promised myself that one day I have to produce it because I think it you know the young people deserve to know it so yes I've been sort of sucked in the stocking stories since I was a kid but it really really all came together what I discovered superheroes oh yes spider-man is my favorite actually you know Peter Parker Clark Kent during the day the just simple no more guys at night you know that night that's when they sort of these guys they run out there or heal bad people save the world it was amazing so these things really sort of have marked my imagination my story and my life my life forever of course it's not a surprise that foot years later I'm still the kid still believe in superheroes and it's not a surprise as well that eventually I ended up doing the type of job I do you know I believe in the power of people stories I believe in the power of narratives because I believe that a lot of things we do you coming over here somehow is a narrative what are you doing today I'm going to TEDx and that and this and this and this preparing this for you was a narrative a lot of things I mean I tend to look at life as a series of of narratives narratives make you see things differently things can look this way narrator the certain way they can become this way so I ended up doing the job I do and what people ask me would you do for a living but answer is I'm a storyteller yes that's what I do I'm doing now mr. Rotella I tell stories about my clients brands I tell stories about clients you know make them look good or making people understand who they are or what they want I tell stories about my company when I try and sell it and try to get a new a new business a tester is about Congo and I try to make people think that Como is a great place and so on that's what I did was it for a living I tell I'm a storyteller to illustrate that I made a bet in my in my job for example you know have a client telecom industry and in telecom what do they do well you know you need to call somebody they sell you a time that's what they do they come to me and they say we want people to buy more eggs I'm gonna put you to buy more data but among guys are you selling some more data I mean imagine for example today we sort of sort of interesting periods we're running towards election big discussions about democracies people have got different points of views about a lot of different things people have got different opinions say you know what what you actually doing will will tell you what you get with what you're doing for the people there is different people with different opinions it's a time where there is different cultures there is different mindsets but it's a time where in these times is when people really need to communicate so let's help people talk and as a result we have a campaign that says let's make people talk you know for better for democracy and so on the client is selling a time we selling hope it's a different story the product is the same the narrative makes the difference I love this story I mean Kennedy once was you know sort of visiting NASA as he's written as a I'll tell a couple of stories just to illustrate up with telling story so it's Kara so visiting the NASA and as NASA he sees a guy you know the guy's mopping the floor he looks very very serious when it goes to be there and say hey but what's your job here the guy says my job the guys black guy old the guy stands tall and say I'm helping send somebody to the moon proudly I have another one these three three guys they're working they're sort of bricklayers working on a honey on the side do you know somebody who passes bad goes to the first one I say hey what the guy sees me I make bricks okay it goes to the second one what do you do see me I'm building a wall and it goes to the store about you what do you do the guy sees me I'm building a cathedral the first one's got a job the second one is got a career the third one is got a colleague same fact different story the story makes the difference I have another one and it's closer to what I do for a living there is advertising guy is going to a meeting he's late and he's running quickly it's coming in his car as he parks he finds a blind man you know sitting by the batter by the corner the guy's got his sign the sign says hey please help me you know I can't please help me I'm blind and he's good of course he's got this box where it's sort of experimental to put money there is nothing inside it stops takes a piece of pen takes the piece of paper write something on put it back and goes up to his meeting 12 later is coming out he stops by and the guys think it's for WoW the guy says but what did you write man said it's the first day of spring the skies blue flowers are bright but I can't see them the same fact different story different impacts that's why I started standing the power the power of the story the story that can really change how you see in who you are the story can make a difference between loving you and hating you the story can make a difference between buying and rejecting so that's great but it's important to understand what story is being told I told that everything we do is about story so we are do we project ourselves what we do how we meet people how we talk to them there is a story that is being told they're telling us a story we tell it we telling them a story we have to ask ourselves what story is being told about you when I put that picture what comes to mind when I when I say Barack Obama what sort of words come to your mind or thoughts first black president yeah greatness you know ambition yeah fantastic great words so you have positive so there is a positive story I mean this is Barack Obama's stories as you read it as it is told that's the service told about Barack Obama well I went on because I'm a bit of a nerdy so I went on I said let me Google that Google Doc Obama and is the first nerd comes that that that appears yeah Michelle Obama just released her book great story Rock Obama and Thanksgiving he goes out there and you know she shares the food with the gas great story so you read it the story is being told about him well I started getting hooked so this morning I went and I said I let me drive cause then well what try phones I said okay there's something about fuel protests but they're also talking about soccer but it took about the to a fail come in the tree fell go to the shuttle to the other side it's not bad I mean there is sort of a nice story about sauce and then I went on because I got hooked and I was like hey let me try the RC so this is what came out top story you had peace peace killers or in flights global conflicts this week Ebola outbreak in DRC now it may not be I mean we are here and there is a con and we had great food in between and me talking about great things so it's DRC's not just about that but that's the story that's being told that's the story you have to take control of the story now as you take your sort of journey to take control of your story you have to ask yourself but whose was telling your story as African we have a long history of word-of-mouth we you know I told you about the story from my grandfather and so on and on and on it's really such a pity that we do not write we do not write enough we some friends there was a friend of mine you alone I think she's good she was here yeah she sent us a challenge she says oh please challenge someone to show 10 books that I've read in a 10 day challenge where every day yourself you show a book that you've read that you really loved and it's going on so she challenged me I challenge people and it's great it's actually amazing actually I realized a lot of people read but the problem is of the books varies only a tiny portion African books very very very few ok all international Western Western books so we don't write the books we don't write our story we don't tell our version of the story we don't put in books okay we don't even tell it in movies we don't have a cinema cinema sort of industry decent cinema cinema industry which is a great opportunity to tell a story Americans use movies we all know about America even us who haven't been there because we sit in movies every day well the Nigerians are sort of doing a great effort it's a lot of lonely woody was pretty poor at the back it was telling their version of a story it wasn't a very well packaged it's starting to look really really really good and I think we should really take on take on the sames the same the same step Lamia be democratic do Congo have eternal know that the career and PE continent I'll tell you Teatro do many feet leave consecrate a layer they see happy fella in the media nepeta super nice come on indie so suppose I become humbler Vida layer this is a pretty fella Limpopo couch Susie patches of pulling back on Philly's affair doc be on TV a bong Korea del mondo punches our 2010 mazda dacovia this was a hot country to leak on goalie eddie cheever looka looka looka here looka moo-moos africa a couple mo not here 10 model ventures are called Lizzie likes you Laconia selection Democratic leaders EMSL keep omnia from party lists to us some didn't II know Donna issues politically performed typical positive don't lady CD silly swap the FE no panic could ask much was a really valid Polly be negative my belly belly example say she love house sure market to al-abbas a Makita classic in Los Cristianos my Odyssey Horatio Doublemint rebouças a Lincoln back to be a chimera Tilikum this is a real mature being Maxwell a casual more kawaii Ashley play bond Congo incorporated a phosphorus if you play still a mucky muck a DC upon the PE kombucha come up come up hood we come a very top hoody marketing Elavon Vamsi says pay positive a Macanese confess over the on the air or ESP negative communities positive casual more positive come another call me another convo is it exactly Messiah tomorrow bill example a party labelled example of course parisa would be marketing agreeable could imagine telling your story most of the time the media tells your story and the media we lack the juicy part of the story you can see that in the in that discussion I mean she was asking what would interest her there is bad things happening in Congo and stuff like that and we were pushing for the positive side of the story you know what in the facts there is some good things and there is a bad happening in Congo the choice is what story you put forward so yeah so it's all about taking control of the take off from the narrative because if you don't take on from the narrative well somebody else will because there are same whatever happens Esther is taking place if you don't tell the story somebody's gonna give their version make sure you control the narrative and you make sure that your version is the one that is known but when we talk about narratives I'm in the women's I'm talking it may sound like a the narrative is only about how you tell about things it's about the cover the cover is I'm great the cover is Congo is doing great the cover is my business is fantastic and so on but only the cover the real narrative is actually the content inside of the story inside the book we take do you take control of the cover will take control of the inside make it happen okay so like I said our pasts it's not toolbars it's a pity lest we let other people tell our past or present we're not really doing a great job at telling our present the future belongs to us we need to tell the story about our future so I say dream big I'll give you a little little example a little little story sort of tell story sort of twin to to illustrate math my girlfriend sort of ease up ease up if she wants to go and do some awesome some diploma overseas she applied she applied to the school and whatever and she really worked at three three very important for her so he would she applied he did the exams she sent the money and and everything and then of course you know lately to get a visa to Europe is a bit difficult so when she applied for a visa was a bit complicated sticking time so here is a guy who comes and says hey I'll help you okay fantastic so she goes using all the stuff and then she's waiting and waiting and you ready I'm asking us hey what's going on you know when is your visa coming out I don't know the guys the guys told me to wait I said what you mean told you to wait I said what happened I said well I called the PA and the PA Sarah she could not get hold of her bus I'm like but then call the bus she's like yeah but you know I tried to call the bus but his food is always engaged and he's not picking up and so honestly come on you're not gonna tell that PA and that guy get on the way to what you want to achieve to watch you want so see where's the office say well it's down the road well go to go to office she went to the office 30 minutes later she calls me he says you know what I just took my papers back and my passport and my money back and so on these guys have not even applied yet on my visa she has let other people take control of a story here let other people take control of the outcome and control the narrative and then people do that too often I mean ah my team knows me whatever they know they know me they know that I always complain about I hate the world the verb wait I said you can't be waiting because why are you waiting other people are busy doing other things that are more important for you nobody is waiting to see things that they have to pay pigma they have to give them the money now no they've got they've got other things to do they have a life they have other things to care to care about so I hate the verb waiting just just because of that don't let someone else is said about your outcome so I'm getting to towards the end narrative is a reality it's not a fiction or or dreams you think it you tell it but then you make then you make it happen you know just to illustrate on a simple day-to-day basis my best days or when in the morning of the day before I decide what I want to decide the end of my day I know exactly what my day is gonna look like I used to sort of think it and I used to be okay at the beginning of the day you know I didn't today I decide to do ten things I do five and then I started writing it when I start writing it I've actually got better lately actually record it you know because the phone helps you so I'm recording in the car I've got to do this because of this and this and this and it's incredible the effect it has on my output on actually me write in my daily narrative but the narrative applies to you today applies to the week applied to the month applies to a lifetime flashed to that but it also applies to inter plus to you as an individual it applies to a family it applies to a full business applies to a full country it applies to Congo it applies to a continent owning rights in the narratives and making it happen with an end in mind now just to finish this is to to to illustrate me thirty-three-year-old in South Africa just coming out of a long relationship a bit sort of bruised not really know what I want to do coming out of a job sort of looking forward to what I want to become and one day I just stopped and I said hey I have to write my training your vision so this is what I started writing the year is 2010 and 43 year old I'm happy because I'm successful why and I put a couple of sort of things that were a project myself as so as success to me in 2010 and it was amazing in fact and I put it aside it was amazing in 2010 I look back and look at what I wrote and what I was living I had written about starting up a company I had say that I wanted to company to be done with friends and family I said that that that that company had to have an impact on the community where I was operating all these things that I had written and about more personal stuff and it was incredible that what I wrote at least eight of them it was amazing and then the 2011 continued running doing my stuff 2012-2013 the next three years I did not write the next chapter in 2013 I look back and I'm like oh yeah I realized just spent years where I had achieved nothing I didn't know where I was going I was just going because I had to go of course I tried to fix it now so now I've written the next chapter and hopefully it's gonna be it's gonna be fantastic so to conclude I want to say that I believe you know we have different careers we have writers or strategists we have engineers and everything we all have different careers but in my mind I think we all have one job one career a career is that we are writers we are turning the wrong yeah we all we all writers we writers I believe that we should be going into my world and getting crazy crazy and my imagination I believe that we should be the writer about story I think we should go out there and write a movie be the best writer but write the best script ever be the director be the best director ever for that movie and then when you have to pick an actor pick a good one pick yourself be the best lead actor you can find and then be the producer make sure that that movie is fantastic and it wins an Oscar cuz if you don't well you may stand up your life you know just reacting to other people or be a simple extra in somebody else's movie that would be a pity thank you you