Jerry Colonna, author and founder of Reboot, joins 100 Stories for a conversation about radical self-inquiry, childhood, safety, belonging, compassion, agency, and the stories that continue shaping us long after the circumstances that created them are gone.

Jerry shares the pivotal moment when, after years of depression and increasing professional success, he chose to stay alive—and eventually stepped away from his career as an investor to begin the work that would lead him to coaching.

At the heart of Jerry’s work is a question:

“How have I been complicit in creating the conditions I say I don’t want?”

He explains why this question is about curiosity rather than self-blame.

What are we protecting?

What need are we trying to meet?

Why do we stay in relationships, jobs, patterns, and stories that hurt us?

Jerry says many of these patterns begin in our attempts to find love, safety, and belonging. They may have helped us survive once. Years later, we may still be obeying them.

We talk about compassion as a bridge between awareness and action, the danger of leaders bringing unexamined stories into positions of power, intergenerational narratives, and what happens when we finally examine the stories that have shaped us.

And when I ask Jerry what Narrative Intelligence means to him, his answer is simple:

You are not your story.

The question I’m leaving with:

What story are you still living because it once helped keep you safe—and who might you become if you no longer had to obey it?

Content note: This episode includes discussion of depression and suicide.

More about Jerry Colonna: https://www.reboot.io/

More about Paige Williams: https://paigewilliams.co/

StoryKeys: https://storykeys.co/

The 100 Stories Project: https://100storiesproject.com/