What is it that makes us Human? - Our ability to tell stories...

One thing separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom... it's not our intelligence, that we shape our environment, or our ability to love or go to war - none of these things are unique. It is our imagination, that we can convey ideas through stories.

It is our ability to tell stories that are unique amongst the animals on Earth.

As far as we know, no other animal can use imagination, to understand the concept of the past or the future beyond an instinctive behaviour to store food for the winter. They are not interested in their history beyond how their memories serve their immediate needs.

Humans are different. Our ability to remember the past and imagine a future is due to our "episodic memory". Memory allows human beings to make sense of their existence and to prepare for the future, increasing their chances of survival, not only individually but also as a species because we pass on these memories as stories.

As a result of this human trait, it is the stories that we tell ourselves and each other that create the world that we live in, that is how people make sense of what is around them.

If there is no explanation, no story offered, then people will simply make up their own story - about why the sun rises every morning, about why streaks of white fire arc across the sky and the clouds crash during a storm, about you based on what they see and hear and feel, and about your service or widget or business brand unless you give them something else to believe.

Brand stories are about giving your audience or client something to believe, an explanation if you like to help them make sense of you / your product or service... You have a choice - you can be deliberate about it or you can take your chances that the stories that the world makes up for itself are what you are hoping for.