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In Episode 284 of Anecdotally Speaking, discover how the story you tell yourself shapes resilience, leadership and meaning at work.

In this episode, Mark shares the extraordinary true story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi, was he the unluckiest man in history or one of the luckiest? The facts don’t change, but the meaning does.

Mark and Shawn explore how the stories we tell ourselves influence our resilience, leadership and decision-making. They also discuss foreshadowing as a storytelling technique, the role of audience participation in meaning-making, and how leaders can communicate decisions they may not personally agree with while maintaining authenticity and integrity.

For your story bank

Tags: Storytelling, Resilience, Leadership, Meaning, Change

This story starts at 1:34

There was a Japanese engineer named Tsutomu Yamaguchi. In August 1945, at 29 years of age, he was on a business trip to Hiroshima working for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

On the morning of 6 August, he was outdoors when there was a blinding flash in the sky. He was thrown to the ground. He suffered severe burns and ruptured eardrums. The city around him was flattened. He had just experienced the first atomic bomb ever used in war.

He spent the night in a shelter and, despite his injuries, began the journey home the following day. It took him two days to reach Nagasaki, where he received medical attention.

Three days after the first bombing, he returned to work to explain to his boss what had happened in Hiroshima. As he described the blinding flash and the devastation, there was another brilliant explosion above the city. The second atomic bomb had just been dropped—this time on Nagasaki.

Once again, he survived.