Stories are the mechanism of transmission of cultural and tacit knowledge: they are units of information, heavily contextualised, highly magnetic, almost frictionless, and can be very, very, long lived. If i tell a story, i may own it, right up until the point that i share it, but at that time, it takes wings, and becomes real. Stories shared are stories relinquished: despite legal frameworks in which we retain ownership of the husk, the germ of truth that resides within a story is let loose through sharing. The essence of it, the ‘story’ itself, is more than simply © words, and trademarked phrases. Stories are meant to flow. source
Providing his own point of view, Kin Lane says that it would kill him not to be able to tell stories:
I need storytelling to do what I do. To work through ideas. It is how I learn from others.source
Coming at the question from the personal perspective, Aaron Hogan asks what stories define you:
Take a minute and ask yourself those questions: What is your story? Who are you listening to? How is that going?source