Is It True?
You are the stories you tell yourself.
This isn't self-help fluff. It's settled science. Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck's research shows that people with "growth mindset" stories outperform those with "fixed mindset" stories by significant margins. Harvard Business School studies demonstrate that individuals who reframe their personal narratives see measurable improvements in career outcomes within 12 months.
Your thoughts become your reality. Your narrative shapes your life.
But here's what we don't talk about: Your business works the same way.
The Woman Who Changed Everything with Four Questions
In 1986, Byron Katie was lying on the floor of a halfway house, consumed by depression and suicidal thoughts. Then something extraordinary happened. She realized that when she believed her thoughts, she suffered. When she didn't believe them, she didn't suffer.
From this insight, she developed "The Work", four simple questions that have since helped millions of people break free from the stories that limit their lives:
Is it true?
Can you absolutely know that it's true?
How do you react when you believe that thought?
Who would you be without that thought?
What makes Katie's approach so devastatingly effective isn't complexity. It's the radical simplicity of questioning what we've never thought to question.
She discovered that most of our suffering comes not from reality, but from the stories we tell ourselves about reality. And the moment we truly examine those stories, their power over us dissolves.
Your Business Has Stories Too
Companies, created and led by humans, operate from the exact same kind of unexamined stories:
What they're capable of and what's impossible
Why things work the way they do
What the market will accept
How people behave
What success looks like
Some of these stories serve you. Many limit you. But here's the problem: Most business stories have never been questioned.
They're just accepted as "how things are" instead of examined as "stories we're choosing to believe."
The Manufacturing Company That Wasn't Innovative
I recently worked with a leadership team that had convinced themselves: "We're just not innovative. We make practical stuff for practical people."
Let's apply Katie's questions:
Is it true? "Well, yes. We're not like those tech companies with R&D labs."
Can you absolutely know that it's true? Long pause. "I mean... I guess we do solve problems in creative ways sometimes."
How do you react when you believe that thought? "We don't even try to innovate. We dismiss new ideas quickly. We hire for 'process-focused' people."
Who would you be without that thought? "We'd probably... try more things. Look for creative solutions. See opportunities instead of obstacles."
When we dug deeper, I discovered:
Three patents filed in the past five years
A customer suggestion program generating 47 process improvements
An engineering team prototyping solutions during lunch breaks
They weren't lacking innovation. They were trapped by an unexamined story that prevented them from seeing their own capabilities.
The Questions Your Business Has Never Asked
Here's how to apply Katie's method to your company:
Step 1: Capture Your Business Stories
How do you describe your company to potential clients?
What do you tell new hires about "how we work here"?
What explanations do you give when things don't go as planned?
What assumptions drive your strategic decisions?
Step 2: Question Everything For each story, ask Katie's four questions. Be rigorously honest.
Step 3: Look for Contradicting Evidence What proof exists that your limiting stories might not be true? What are you not seeing because it doesn't fit your narrative?
Step 4: Imagine Life Without the Story Who would your company be without this limiting belief? What would become possible?
Step 5: Test the New Reality Identify two specific actions you could take this month to live as if the new story were true.
The Power of Radical Questioning
What makes Byron Katie's approach so effective is that it doesn't try to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. It questions whether the thoughts are true in the first place.
Most business strategies try to work around limitations. Katie's method eliminates them by revealing they were never real to begin with.
Research from McKinsey shows that organizations with "aspirational but grounded" narratives about their capabilities outperform their peers by 23% in revenue growth. They're not living in fantasy. They've simply questioned their limitations and kept only the stories that serve their potential.
Your Story Is Your Strategy
You'll never outgrow the story you tell about yourself. Neither will your company.
The question isn't whether your stories are completely accurate. The question Byron Katie taught us to ask is simpler and more powerful:
Is it true?
What story is your business telling? And what becomes possible when you question whether it's actually true?
Limits are a choice. So are the stories that create them.
P.S. This week, write down three things your company "just isn't" or "can't do." Then ask Katie's four questions about each one. You might be surprised by what you discover.