No One Learns From
Untold Stories

Dear Aloha Friends,

Recently, I was sitting with a group of friends, and everyone was talking about what they loved about the work they do and what challenged them day to day.

Have you stopped lately to think about what makes you want to do the work you do? Do you have to do the work, or do you get to do the work?

In this group, one of my friends said,

“I love to see an individual’s life change from barely surviving to super thriving.”

Another said,

“I love that I get to do something completely different every day.”

Then one of my friends leaned over and said to me,

“I don’t know if you realize it or not, but you keep lots of ideas and dreams alive.”

Keeping dreams alive for others can happen in many ways. My challenge to you is to think about how you can personally do that in your workplace, or how you might design your life around this idea. Here are a few ways my friends came up with to keep dreams alive for others and encourage them to reach their potential.

1. Encourage the skills and expertise others might not see in themselves.

2. Have conversations about what is important to that person.

3. Connect them with people who are inspiring or who will get them to the next step. Sometimes that’s as small as sending a podcast episode or making a quick text or email introduction.

4. Ask questions that allow that person to come to their own best conclusions.

5. Recognize that in every single person there is more greatness inside, waiting for a catalyst that helps them reach a joyful achievement.

As you can imagine, I have been thinking about my friend’s comment ever since.

I thought about the authors we’ve worked with at Aloha. So many of them carried a book idea around for years before they wrote a single word. Maybe it was a framework they’d taught in workshops a hundred times, or a story their team kept asking them to retell. Most of them just needed someone to tell them the idea was worth finishing.

That’s where the title of this newsletter comes from. No one learns from untold stories. What you’ve learned from years of leading (and the hard seasons you made it through), can’t help anyone while you keep it to yourself. The same goes for the people around you. Sometimes the best way to keep someone’s dream alive is to ask them to tell you their story and then listen.

Maybe someone (namely, me) needs to ask you, too. If there’s a book you’ve been carrying around, the one people keep telling you to write, hit reply and tell me about it. I’d love to hear it, and I’d be glad to help you figure out the next step.

And if someone came to mind while you were reading that list, send this newsletter their way.

Mahalo for being the kind of person who keeps dreams alive for the people around you.

With aloha,

Maryanna Young

CEO, Aloha Publishing