I just finished what I think will be for me a life changing week in Coorg. One month ago, I signed up for this vague residency called the Story Collective. I came across this online, and it talked about learning about “storytelling” and assumed it was a writing workshop. However, since it was run by Raghava KK, an artist, I didn’t quite understand why he was equipped to teach us writing skills. However, Raghava is fascinating and so I signed up for it trusting that it would be worthwhile

‍

Once the program started, the exercises made it clear that it wasn’t to do with writing at all, rather, an exercise to identify and unblock your own mental patterns that keep you from progressing in life and in enterprise. Through the diverse set of 19 people who attended this residency, it validated new skills that are relevant now, as we move past the industrial age and into the creative age. That a linear and homogenous career path is no longer the only path to success, rather a polyamorous relationship with your skills, where one dabbles in multiple things, and finds a way to integrate all those learnings.

‍

A new corporate structure, where collaborative networks become the digital nervous system of your enterprise, rather than one hierarchical organism.

‍

Learning to listen without prejudice, and finding that giving someone a chance, is what gives themselves a chance to realize their full potential, and in turn change the world.

‍

That education systems based on unending amounts of empathy (sometimes seemingly undeserved) can create safe spaces that unlock unlimited possibilities in every single person. Whether applied to adults or children.

‍

This program was like a mini MBA, and instead of textbooks, the facilitators told us about their experiences with success and failure through their lived experiences, rather than a textbook. And how hustling,hacking and audacity are an integral part of growing.

‍

From writing a letter to your younger self, to collaboratively making one giant painting, to delivering a TED talk we wrote ourselves to this little audience, this week has left me vulnerable and exposed to my own limitations, the awareness of which will hopefully help me overcome them at some point. I made 19 new friends, and each one taught me through example, how one can work on their own personality. I feel incredibly grateful to Raghava KK and the rest of the team to open up their vulnerabilities so I could learn something from it.

‍

This little group consisting of artists, actors, writers, architects, karate referees, hustlers, journalists and educationists has become my new little tribe.