Genius or storyteller? Why not both!

Ours is an old house. 

Built in the 1850s, it lacks modern foundations and even the most basic structural integrity. It also leans, Tower of Pisa style, a full foot from front right to back left. Guests habitually emerge in the morning bruised and bemused having tumbled out of bed due to a killer combination of wonky furniture, unfamiliarity with their location and - well - gravity.

The walls are cracked, the paint is peeling, there are leaks everywhere. Every day, something new has broken. And there I wait, helplessly, for my father-in-law to arrive with his power sander or his axe or his drill with the seventeen interchangeable extensions. Sanguine, but eyebrow arched at my DIY incompetence.

As I stand forlornly in front of the latest busted tap or knackered door knob, I often get the picture above this piece flashing across my mind. It features Margaret Hamilton, the NASA scientist who was instrumental in orchestrating the first moon landing, standing proudly beside a pile of paper stacked higher than her head. 

For me, it represents an exotic and wholly unattainable level of technical genius. If you are someone who routinely bursts into tears when faced with a printer jam or a wonky IKEA shelving unit, the moon seems an infeasibly long way away.

I will never fail to be amazed at how human beings continue to push the boundaries of science. The fluidity of thought required. The constant, unquenchable thirst for the next breakthrough. The boundless optimism and resolute rejection of failure as an option. 

It is a small comfort that, perhaps, Margaret would struggle to hit a double sixteen in a crunch game of darts at her local pub, score 40 goals in a single season for Tring Tornadoes under-13s or be able to knock out the entire Frozen 2 soundtrack in front of a bunch of hyper-critical five-year-olds.

But It is a much larger comfort to reflect that - happily - people are blessed with different skill-sets.

Even more fascinating are those intersections between technical brilliance, creative flair and authentic powers of communication. Every human possesses a different combination. Rarely is one person blessed with all three. Many geniuses and artists lack the wherewithal to effectively articulate what it is that makes them so special. In the same way, communicators often have all the tools to tell a compelling story, but slim pickings in the way of original content. Empty vessels, and all that...

The result is that we must all work together - particularly when it comes to business. 

Entrepreneurs and innovators can’t be expected to be able to conjure a thought leadership piece out of thin air, any more than I can knock together a revolutionary digital therapeutic solution or harness the latest AI technology to develop a groundbreaking new app.   

But, as a ghostwriter, I can help the geniuses tell their own stories in their own words.  

In the last couple of years I have written pieces under the bylines of international supply chain facilitators, IT consultants and medical experts. Video game innovators, jewellery designers and automotive component makers. For a brief moment, I am them and they are me - and together we can breathe life into their extraordinary qualities and get their stories onto the page and out into the world, often for the very first time.

I can do the same for you, too. So if your business has an exciting story to tell, get in touch!

Just don’t ask me to come round and stick up your wallpaper.