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When I went into the ecentre in 2011, I was challenged to validate my business idea. This meant researching and testing the market to see if it had legs. Validating what I believed was a fantastic idea that would work and be very successful was a truly challenging experience.

This is a story about two women whose lives took different paths. When I was in my twenties I had a small catering business in Taranaki.  Through it, I made many friends. One was special. May was a little bit older than me and when she came into the coffee lounge (that’s what they were called back then), she was surrounded by friends laughing and sharing their thoughts about voluntary work they had just done at the museum nearby.

Every so often I hear people declare, ‘he’s really creative’ or ‘she’s got a great imagination.’ I’ve often wondered what exactly they mean by this. What is being creative or what is happening when we use our imagination? Interesting, isn’t it? We take these two words for granted, and we all know what they mean, but just what is happening when we use our imagination and are being creative is rarely discussed.

Whenever a group gathers, the value of their collective purpose is multiplied many times and the capacity to do good is increased manifold.
So it is important to join those groups that gather to educate, inform, and contribute. This was the case last weekend when over 50,000 people gathered in Auckland to listen to 150 global writers.

I wonder if this is a universal issue? 

Recently Auckland University cited a lack of literacy skills as one of the leading causes of failure at University.

As a consequence, they are raising the minimum requirements for entering. In 2009 a survey found that 25% of students lacked ‘the necessary literacy skills to succeed at University.’ That figure led them to make University entry more difficult. However, entry requirements are not as stringent as they soon will be.

Since setting up the Story Mint, I have known that we will, at some stage, be setting up a Board. The timing for this is important. If we leave it too long, we will become like a projectile that has lost its propeller.   Do it too early and confusion will reign as people see all that needs to be done and apply various conflicting solutions.

I always imagined we had to be at a point where the business could afford to pay each Director, so given the state of the business, the time is a distance away.

Recently a long-time friend contacted me and tentatively shared a piece of her daughter’s writing.  The writing is beautiful, elegant, sophisticated and moving.  It is the daughter’s struggle, battle, inner turmoil with being anorexic.  She described how bullying when overweight affected her.  I will not share any more of her story as I hope at some stage to share it on The Story Mint site – the reason for sharing is so the debate about words, images and their impact on others can open up a sensitive subject for discussion.

  Last week we commemorated Anzac Day, the landing of the Australian and New Zealand forces at Gallipoli. Of the 100,444 men who landed in the Cove, almost 17,000 were killed and during the war we suffered a 58% casualty rate. This was a huge price to pay by a country of just one million people. As I grow older I realise what an enormous sacrifice our soldiers made.

Since then they have done it again in World War Two and in numerous battles since.  I know it would be easy to say, ‘it’s not our war,’ but that would be like standing by while the neighbour’s house burned down.

I don’t get grammar.

At school, my least favourite subject was English.  I loved reading and writing poetry and did well until I changed schools.  Then, they started to teach us grammar and talked about verbs, adjectives, nouns, pronouns, adverbs, etc.  I learnt a noun is a naming word, a verb a doing word, an adjective is a describing word, and so on.  When asked to look at a piece of writing I just saw words.

I’ve heard the phrase ‘if it was easy everyone would be doing it’ many times since starting The Story Mint and right now all I can say is, ‘never was there a truer word spoken.’ However, there are moments when the light shines through the haze and the direction and reason for pursuing the dream becomes clear