Reflection - Storytelling

Challenge and Selection    I am an aspiring entrepreneur who wants to solve the issue of blood shortage of my city during  COVID and thereafter and I believe storytelling is a great tool to start my journey. Many times I  hear the news that people are dying because there isn’t much blood available in the blood banks  and nowadays because of COVID the supply traffic has been at an all-time low. When I was with  my grandfather in his last breath a couple of years ago, I had to wait many hours for donors to  come and donate which was physically and mentally stressful, and I always felt that there might  be some ways that people can quickly receive blood on time and save the life of their loved ones.  Sadly, this was also the reason how my grandfather died.    I prefer storytelling as a way to entice people emotionally and to help their loved ones in need  and make donor responsible towards society. It can inspire and bring a connection between the  people and capture the real values and emotion. I use this tool to explain the current scenario and  find a way that is more efficient for people to receive blood on time.    Application    I have a story about using storytelling. In one of the startup summit regarding medical  evolutions, I was trying to explain the benefit of peer to peer connection approach whereby a  single click on a device can notify nearby donors regarding the urgent need of the blood. But to  reach the conclusion, I had to explain my emotional story of how there was not enough blood in  the market to save my grandfather on time. It was very stressful to wait for an angel to come and  rescue my grandfather. Constantly checking up my grandfather and running to find the medicine  and fresh blood on time.    The entire summit hall was in disbelief that a country with 28 million people and not many were  there to donate blood. It was really emotional to relive that moment and I could see a few of the  participants and members were in tears. In the hall, there were many people from the medical  background and few of the directors of hospital present and they encouraged me to work on the  project and they fully support my idea to bring change to people regarding the importance os  donating blood.    Insight and Approach    As soon as I got the approval and support from many of the members, my idea was gaining a lot  of attraction. In hospitals, whenever were was a patient who required blood, the doctors

suggested about my business to the loved ones of the patient. Quite a lot of people loved the idea  and many people were able to save their loved ones. I also once visited the hospital to donate the  blood as I was notified by the app and it was emotional to see many people waiting to thank me  and say how much it meant to them and I wish this kind of idea was back then when I needed the  most. I was especially happy that they didn’t have to leave their family member and instead, a  donor was present at the right time which can be a huge relief from the loved ones.    As I told this story in many of the seminars, I think it made a big impact on people on the  importance of blood donation. Currently, this idea is getting a favourable response from Red  Cross as well. I finally believed that a little story that I experienced can bring so much good and  happiness in society.    Even though the course explained a lot of tools, storytelling is the one is used prior and now I  think it is time to integrate and implement a mind mapping tool to create a clear visualization of  all the stakeholders that might be involved in this idea and how each might benefit from this.    I would like to thank Cohen for designing this course and all the faculties who used their  valuable time to explain different tools from their expertise.

