Confession. I’m still thinking about Ryan Reynolds.
Do you know what he listed as the first job on his LinkedIn Profile?
A stint as a forklift driver at Albertson’s Supermarkets in 1995.
Hmmm… given his success and varied business interests, what about this job held enough meaning for him that he included it on his profile?
It’s quite possible that when he created his profile, he started with his first job and went from there. He wouldn’t be the first to do that.
Short of Ryan Reynolds telling us about his five months as a forklift driver, we won’t really know what, if anything, is important about it.
It did, however, make me wonder about his origin story.
We all have an origin story. One that includes our formative years, early jobs, or seminal life moments that shape not only who we are, but our values and identity as well. (See this post about Identity!)
In a 2007 Harvard Business Review article on authentic leadership, the authors of a leadership study found there is no “ideal leader” profile. Instead, their research uncovered that leadership traits and skills emerged from individuals’ life stories.
“Consciously and subconsciously, [leaders] were constantly testing themselves through real-world experiences and reframing their life stories to understand who they were at their core. In doing so, they discovered the purpose of their leadership and learned that being authentic made them more effective.”
To get to this point, however, you have to know your origin story.
If you’re not sure where to start, try this:
- Grab a beverage of choice and fuzzy slippers
- Grab your favorite pen and notebook or note-taking app
- Think about your life in chapters and start writing
- What are the top five seminal moments that have shaped who you are today?
- What happened?
- Who were you with?
- How did you feel?
- What impact did it have on you?
- What did you learn from it?
- Which values do you hold dear as a result?
- What else about this event is important or relevant to you?
- Keep writing and see what emerges
Knowing your origin story can be incredibly powerful.
Do you know what else is powerful?
Appreciating that other people have an origin story too, and it’s probably different than yours.
The next time someone irks you, think about where they might be coming from. Literally and figuratively!
