People Passion 360° is the BIZCATALYST 360° channel for People First. We are delighted to announce the launch of a new special series focused on the ‘Real Stories of Real People – Travels Without Charley’.
The People First initiative has a big vision and is moving forward on a variety of initiatives including ‘Post Disaster Lost Identity, the Indie Web Movement, GDPR, Internet Identity, and The ‘Business of Identity’.
These initiatives have been selected because they fit into the overarching mission of People First: to help identify what we each need to create a world where people and their humanity are at the center of all thinking, decisions, and action.
This human-centered perspective led me to think about the ‘Real Stories of Real People’ and ‘Travels Without Charley’ was conceived.
John Steinbeck is one of 4 literary ‘Johns’ that I reference regularly; Steinbeck wrote ‘East of Eden’ and ‘Grapes of Wrath’. He also wrote a lesser-known work from 1962 that records a journey in 1960 through America with his dog Charley. The book ‘Travels With Charley’ is lovely and highly recommended. While not as famous as his earlier work, it is in many ways more approachable, definitely shorter and certainly not missing the acerbic Steinbeck commentary on America.
Me? I don’t have a dog to travel with and would not even begin to think to compare myself to someone like Steinbeck. I am just borrowing his book title because there are stories I hear from people. All kinds of people. All the time. ‘Travels Without Charley’ is my modern-day, far less skilled contribution to the storytelling that is centric to putting people first – but that many reference as if they have just learned of the ‘second coming’.
Every story you will read is true and came out of a conversation I had with someone. Sometimes I have changed the names of the people, sometimes I haven’t. I have been deliberately vague about the location of these people and their stories, to maintain confidentiality.
The stories emerged simply by talking to people, but mainly listening to them. What they said, they were saying to a complete stranger that they had just met for the first, and in most cases only, time. I don’t think anything that was told to me was ‘secret’ … but then, how much do we say to complete strangers that we might not say to others? I can tell you that each person talked because they wanted to tell their stories. To be heard.
Through these short stories, I hope that I am allowing them to talk a little louder.
The stories are also steadily mapping into a book that will connect to People First themes and frameworks designed to help people navigate this increasingly automated, data-driven, corporately shaped world that we all live in.
I hope you enjoy them.
