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Once upon a time… well, it might have been yesterday, as well… there was a young man who had two friends. Their names were WHAT and WHO. 

One day, the young man decided to build his own business. He wanted to bake bread. He knew his friend WHAT has set up his business a while ago, so he called him to help him out. 

They have done together almost all things that needed to be done: refining the business idea and clarifying targeted customers, writing the business plan, conducting the market research, assessing finances, setting up the legal entity, buying the needed pieces of equipment, even testing the bread recipes the young man knew from his grandmother…you know, almost everything.

Once setting everything up and reaching the point of building up his brand to get a following of people ready to jump when he was to open the doors of his bakery, the young man started to slow down his pace and eventually got stuck. WHAT tried to put him into the action mood again, encouraging him:

“You proved you know everything you need to know about making bread, you know how to do it, you proved you can do it as well… What’s missing?”

Although he was very grateful to WHAT for all the provided help, the young man did not know how to explain to him… what was missing, so he just said:

“I don’t think this will work for me. I’m stuck. How can I say I am a baker in these marketing ads since I am just opening the bakery? I have only baked bread in my kitchen for my family and friends. I don’t want to sell bread; I want to bake it. And why do we need marketing since all I want is to bake bread?”

WHAT did not know what to do to help him, so he called their mutual friend, WHO. Well, truth to be said, WHO was already around, but neither WHAT, nor the young man noticed her as they were very into doing staff, rather than, you know… anything else.

So, all she did, was to invite the young man to stop doing what he knew very well to do and just be… just be part of a dialogue:

“You mentioned you could not say you are a baker, so who are you, then?”

“Can you say it in a way that if your friends read it, they’d know it was you?

“You have just said, you do not want to sell bread, but you want to bake it. Whom do you want to bake it for?”

“If you are the best you can be, the person you’ve always wanted to become – then who do you choose to be?”

“And now, what becomes possible?”

The dialogue continued for a while and the questions might have been the ones above or different ones, based on the young man’s shared thoughts, emotions, convictions, values, identity and belonging feelings, you know, as every meaningful dialogue should be… and… it might have even started differently.

Some say that WHAT and WHO were not the young man’s friends, but coaching instruments and that the dialogue might have even been a coaching session. WHO knows? We don’t know that for sure. 

What we know, though, is that WHAT and WHO are still around The Baker’s Bread House, always there to help him grow… or be… you know, help him bake bread. It seems there is a lot of it that needs baking.

 

 

Photo1 credit: Unsplash
Photo2 credit: Unsplash
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