Ultimate Quest is close to synonymous with ‘theme’, a word with which every accomplished storyteller is familiar. Every story has a theme, usually a very simple one. You should be able to identify it, though often you may have to think about it a bit, to make sure that you have sorted out the overall theme of the story from other, less profound themes. In every great story, the overall theme is reiterated in almost every scene, in ways we usually process not intellectually but very much instintctually. Thus each scene is, thematically, a microcosm of the whole story. For example, if the overall theme of ‘The Wizard of Oz, is ‘there is no place, like home’ then each scene – Dorothy running away from Miss Gulch, the witch of a neighbor who wants to put Toto to sleep; Dorothy with her friends in the dark, ominous forest, even Dorothy being dazzled by the eye candy of the new world she’s fallen into, the place that suggest to her ‘wer’re not in Kansas anymore’ is also about that very same idea: There is no place like home.

If the overall theme of The Godfather is that you can never escape your past – despite Micheal Corleone’s continual, deluded belief that the family business will soon become ‘legitimate’ – then almost every scene reiterates this idea: the moral compromise young Vito Corleone makes in the New World to become ‘godfather’, a position not unlike that held by the man who killed his family back in the Old Country, his hot – headed son’s falling into a trap and being gunned down at the toll plaza; his youngest son and heir apparante, the cold blooded Michael, eliminating all his enemies on the very day he stands before God to become his nephew’s godfather. In many ways it is this echoing or ‘alignment’ between the overarching theme of a great story and all the scenes, characters, and moments that make up that story – be it Madame Bovary or High Noon or Moby Dick or the Harry Potter books or the New Testament or countless others – that makes these stories stay with us forever. Great stories are never made up of far flung elements. They are never about petty concerns. They are always tight, streamlined, deceptively simple. Indeed, they are unified.

The Power of Your Story Seminar

Amsterdam 17 April

You will examine with Peter de Kuster, founder of The Power of Your Story the way we tell stories about ourselves to ourselves — and, most important, the way we can change those stories to transform our business and personal lives.

“Your story is your life,” says Peter. As human beings, we continually tell ourselves stories — of success or failure; of power or victimhood; stories that endure for an hour, or a day, or an entire lifetime. We have stories about ourselves, our creative business, our customers ; about what we want and what we’re capable of achieving. Yet, while our stories profoundly affect how others see us and we see ourselves, too few of us even recognize that we’re telling stories, or what they are, or that we can change them — and, in turn, transform our very destinies.

Telling ourselves stories provides structure and direction as we navigate life’s challenges and opportunities, and helps us interpret our goals and skills. Stories make sense of chaos; they organize our many divergent experiences into a coherent thread; they shape our entire reality. And far too many of our stories, says Peter, are dysfunctional, in need of serious editing. First, he asks you to answer the question, “In which areas of my life is it clear that I cannot achieve my goals with the story I’ve got?” He then shows you how to create new, reality-based stories that inspire you to action, and take you where you want to go both in your work and personal life.

Our capacity to tell stories is one of our profoundest gifts. Peter’s approach to creating deeply engaging stories will give you the tools to wield the power of storytelling and forever change your business and personal life.