Your Story Matters — Here’s Why

I was aged 10 and I was at little league baseball practice – my chosen sport when I was younger. We were having batting practice and myself and my friend Darren started to have a competition about who could hit the most home runs.

Every time we went up to bat, whether we hit a home run or not we’d vocally exclaim that we had. As practice went on, we became louder and louder in our achievements but not so loud as to disturb the parents sitting around watching and waiting for our teammates.

By the end of our practice, Darren and I were equal in our home runs of twenty-five even though we’d each only batted about 8 times. But then again, we were only 10 and had active imaginations.

When I got into the car where my father was waiting the first thing, he said to me was, “You shouldn’t speak about yourself like that, people don’t really like it,” as he referred to Darren and me boasting about our imaginary achievements.

To this day I’m not sure if I understood it incorrectly, but ever since then, I’ve never felt comfortable when it comes to speaking about myself.

Even when I give public talks, it’s always the part about myself that creates the most angst in me.

However, here’s the thing.

We all have stories related to our journeys, and those journeys have thrown up achievements, challenges, and lessons –  all of which have contributed to our experiences and experience that have benefited us and those around us.

They are also what makes us unique because they’re related to our beliefs, values, and choices.

If we keep our stories to ourselves then others never get to understand us fully and the value that we can offer.

Recently I was invited onto a podcast titled , The Lunchtime Series, hosted by Kevin Brits. The topic of the podcast was about creativity and innovation- the similarities, the differences, how to promote and develop them and the safety nets needed for us to feel safe enough to be creative and innovative.

It was while I was looking at my notes that I realised that even though creativity and innovation are both fluid, there is a technical aspect to it, and my notes were quite technical. I thought that If I went on this podcast with just these notes, the audience would disengage after the first 3 minutes.

As I was the invited subject matter expert on the podcast, I needed to share personal stories to highlight the subject as well as verify my credentials as a Coach and a trainer who works in areas of creativity and innovation, among other fields.

So, I’m going to be sharing three personal stories with you that not only highlight my journey which has contributed to my experiences and experience, but also highlight how creativity and innovation are misinterpreted, and showcase why we are all  creative

Story 1

In 1998/1999 I was finishing my training as a photographer by assisting international photographers who came out to Cape Town to photograph fashion catalogues and campaigns. As you can imagine back then was before the age of digital photography, so everything was shot on film. At the end of each (long) day – we were starting around 6am and getting back to the hotel around 7pm – the photographer would drop the film at one of the labs, which weren’t a 1-hour lab, but a professional lab processing specific kinds of film.

The photographer would ask for the film to be clipped, meaning that only 1-1/2 frames of each roll of film would be processed of the anything from 10 to 100 rolls of shot film per day. Once the film was clipped the photographer needed to see the results and then instruct the lab to process the rest of all the rolls according to what they have seen and instruct any changes if necessary. The challenge was that during peak season there were a lot of photographers processing their film so the turnaround time for the clips to be ready could be anything from a few hours onwards. As the photographers liked to view the clips before going to sleep, they needed the film to be delivered to their hotels.

However, because the labs were so busy, they couldn’t afford to lose any of the staff to do the deliveries, so they were delivering them after they closed sometimes at 12 am, 1am, 2am – too late for the photographers.

I saw a problem that needed to be solved – which is an aspect of creativity – solving a problem.

I put forward a proposal to the labs, and to the production companies who were facilitating the shoots, that I would be on call to deliver the film on the lab’s behalf and the production companies agreed to use my service and pay the delivery fees.

I registered a company and set it all up for R10 000. At the time I had a little bakkie, I had a mobile phone (the old Nokia) all I needed were personalised delivery books.

And off I went – delivering film at night from the labs to the local hotels where the photographers were staying.

The film production industry is a very fast paced industry where problems need to be solved quickly. Why international photographers and fashion catalogue clients come to Cape Town is, among other things, the beautiful locations,  the beaches, the wine farms, the mountains etc. Because of the early morning sunrise light, the production crew leave early to get to location which can be anything from 20 minutes to 60+minutes away. If something is forgotten behind it’s a problem to drive back to town because of the traffic – which even then was heavy.

While I was promoting my new business to the production companies, I was asked if I delivered during the day and what I could deliver. “Props, lighting gear, emergency deliveries, anything,” was my response. I even mentioned that I can collect things the day before, store them in my secure lock-up facilities, which was my garage, and I could deliver them early in the morning to be on set on time, and collect them later to take them back to the suppliers.

Without going into all the challenges, learning,  stumbling blocks, sleepless nights, and ups and downs, 7 years later by which time I had 5 vehicles, 13 staff, and was transporting goods for the film industry, art galleries, interior décor stores, and the likes, I sold the company for a healthy profit.

The creative aspect of this story is that I found a problem that needed to be solved that would offer value to others. I thought that I’d be delivering the film at night but ended up with so much more. This I believe is one of the key aspects when pursuing a creative venture – we just don’t know how far it can go, if we have the courage to embark on the journey.

Story 2

In the late 1990’s I was at a friend’s house for dinner. She was a single mom, and she let her daughter watch cartoon network on tv. I noticed how quickly this young girl became completely zoned out by the cartoons – it was as if the world around her completely disappeared – it was just her and the tv program.

I got into a conversation with my friend about the effects of too much tv on a young child’s imagination, and we both agreed that TOO much tv probably stunts the growth of a young person’s imagination. However, my friend did go on to say that as a single mom who leads a busy life , it was easy and convenient to, at times, keep her child occupied with watching tv.

I thought about this for a while and decided to do something about it. So, I wrote a story. The story is about a brother and a sister who while on their way to school meet their imagination – as a character, and it explains to them about this gift that we all possess, our imagination.

Throughout the story, I included 9, “fun time,” activities where the reader would get to, draw a picture, tell a story, make a puppet, etc., and the idea for the story was that instead of leaving the child to watch tv, a parent could read to them a short section of the story and then leave them to play with one of the fun time activities.

People loved the story, and someone suggested that I should try and get it published. Cool idea, I thought, and with impending fame and riches in mind, off I went in search of a publisher.

For three years I sent my manuscript out and for three years I received one rejection after the next. Finally, a publisher contacted me and told me they wanted to publish the story…and I was ecstatic.

An illustrator was commissioned, all the legalities hashed out and about 6 months later just as I was about to send the final manuscript and illustrations to the publisher, they once again contacted me to tell me that they were going out of business and that they could no longer publish my book.

If you would have known me then you would have seen a grown man cry…☹

After a few days/weeks of feeling very sorry for myself, I realised that I couldn’t continue that way and realised that I had one of three choices to make.

1. I could give up on the idea completely, and live life almost being a published author.
2. I could look for another publisher – but after the amount of rejection letters I’d received, I didn’t think my ego could handle any more rejection.

OR

3. I had the manuscript and the illustrations, and I had the confidence knowing that someone had wanted to publish my story…I could self-publish my story.

And that is what I decided to do.

There was just one very small problem…

I knew absolutely nothing about the world of self-publishing, nothing, nada, niks.

However, I felt that this story offered value so I set a goal for myself, and that was, in 18 months from that time I would walk into a bookstore and see a copy of my book on the shelves.

From that moment on I went into finding out everything about the world of independent publishing. I met with authors, designers, publishers, printers, distributors, librarians, bookstore owners, editors, indeed, anyone who could give me any advice, feedback, or information related to my personal quest, and the best part of this story is that so, so, so many people helped me, asking for nothing in return.

18 months later, I walked into  Wordsworth Garden Centre, and there was the Magic that’s Ours,  on the shelves… and once again I had a tear in my eye.

However, there is more to this story.

When we set (big) goals for ourselves and we have the courage to pursue certain things that happen along the way.

1. We get to learn about the specific subject. With all my research, overcoming obstacles, and learning how the world of self-publishing works, I became something of an expert on the subject. People started to come to me and ask me questions related to their self-publishing journey – to which I always helped where I could.
2. We learn about ourselves. On my journey, I learned about my strengths, got to understand my limitations, and all the in betweens. And, because of my success – of realising a dream it affected my self confidence and belief in a positive way.

The combination of the two led me to publish 4 more books, two of which are photographic coffee-table books.

When the subject of me being an author comes up in a conversation, people have said to me that I’m so creative because I’m an author. I tend to disagree with them, as the journey of self-publishing the book has the same elements of creativity that writing a story does. There are problems to be solved, and decisions to make. The need to be brave knowing that at times we’ll be wrong, and corrections will need to be implemented – all of which are creative actions.

Even though my name is written on the cover of the book, there were so many collaborations and so many people who helped me along the journey – quite often asking for nothing in return.  A gentle reminder to myself that very seldom, if at all, are our achievements achieved solely.

Story 3

In 2005, when I was working as a professional photographer, Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company (TMACC) asked me to photograph their annual maintenance shutdown. Two of the massive cables that pull the cable cars up and down the mountain needed to be replaced, and they wanted to create a project manual with photographs. This job was ideal for me as a documentary photographer.

On the first day of the two-week shutdown, I arrived at the lower cable station, and was confronted with containers full of machinery, crane trucks, rolls of massive cable and workers in overalls going about their work. I realised that this was bigger than just a production manual. Besides the job that I was commissioned for I went about capturing this engineering feat in a very unique environment

At the end of the shoot, I handed over the photos for the project manual and the other photos I’d captured. The marketing team was so blown away that they’ve commissioned me every year since then to photograph their maintenance work.

In 2019 TMACC celebrated its 90^th anniversary and as part of the celebration 20 of my photos were to be exhibited in a major gallery in Cape Town in early 2020

The opening night was amazing with suppliers, friends, staff, and the media attending,  all looking at my photos.  I felt like the king of the mountain experiencing something that I never wanted to end.

2 days into the exhibition South Africa went into its first hard lockdown and my photos hung silently in the dark, empty, gallery.

It was during lockdown that I realised that these photos needed to be seen. As I am the only photographer who has been commissioned to photograph TMACC’s shutdown consistently and in-depth, these are the only photos in the world about maintaining the biggest cable car system in Africa. I wanted them exhibited, not only for me but also to show the work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure the tourist’s safety.

So, my next adventure began.

I contacted anyone and everyone that I thought would be interested in exhibiting these photos. Galleries were shut in South Africa, so they were a no-go.

However, the cable car system was manufactured by a Swiss company, the cables are from Switzerland, and the engineers that come out to do the work are Swiss. I contacted all of them, galleries in Switzerland, and the Swiss Tourism department. NO one was interested in the photos, but Swiss Tourism suggested I contact the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne…which I did. I now have 32 photos permanently exhibited in the museum, the most visited museum in Switzerland.

But the story doesn’t end here.

The Director of the museum mentioned the launch date and suggested I be there for the opening and to give a talk. They had paid me some money for the photos but that had long gone due to the financial vacuum cleaner that was Covid. I needed to raise the funds to get to the opening.

Hello crowdfunding…

I reached out publicly to ask people to pay for me to go to Switzerland, so that I could see my photos hanging on a wall in some museum. It wasn’t a comfortable ask as we were right in the middle of the pandemic, people were struggling, and I was asking them to help me, me, me!

And people did, and I got to go to the museum to experience the opening day, something that I’ll never forget.

And this brings us to the end of my stories.

However, this post is meant to be more than what I have achieved.

This post is about creativity.

I’m not more creative than anyone else because I’m an author, or a photographer, or an entrepreneur, these are all skills that can be learned.

It’s what we do with them and the adventures that we go on that will include:

1. Stepping outside of our comfort zone
2. Trying new things
3. Being prepared to be wrong
4. Being curios
5. Collaborating
6. Solving a problem
7. Making a connection
8. And being persistent

that make us all creative.

The secret involves finding the journeys that resonate with us enough so that we’ll have the courage and persistence to creatively deal with what we encounter along the way until we reach our desired destination.

The suggestion is to look in the rearview to acknowledge your own adventures, own them, and when need be, share them.

These have been my journeys and I’m sure you have had your own or are wanting to embark on a new one. If so, good luck, enjoy the ride, and if you feel the need to talk to someone about it, need help, or an accountability partner, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thank you for taking the time to hear me out.

Best

Gary