Don't Be Like the Monkey in a Cage

"A scientist put five monkeys in a cage. On top of the cage, he placed a banana. Of course, the monkeys all started to climb to the top of the cage, fighting each other for the banana. One of the monkeys got to the banana, and as he picked it up, the scientist turned a rose on him, spraying him with cold water. Not only was the "winner" who grabbed the banana soaked, but also all of the other monkeys in the cage, too. They were not happy.

Again and again, whenever any monkey went for the banana, all of the monkeys got wet. Soon, if one monkey started climbing, the others started pulling him back, even hitting him. They didn't want to get soaked again with cold water. After a while, none of the monkeys tried to get the banana. They had learned their lesson.

Then the scientist tried something unexpected. He removed one of the monkeys from the cage and replaced it with a new monkey. This monkey knew nothing about the cold water, so he started climbing. Immediately, all four of the original monkeys jumped on him to prevent him from reaching the banana. He learned that the banana was off-limits. One by one, the scientist replaced the "trained" monkeys who had once felt the cold water with new monkeys. Upon each new monkey's arrival, the group quickly, taught him that there was no way he should go for that banana. He learned that lesson and accepted it, though he never knew why. After five days, none of the original monkeys remained at the cage - they'd all been replaced with the "new" monkeys. Even though the new monkeys had never been sprayed by the cold water, none of them tried to reach the banana, and they were all determined to fight anyone who tried."

The story above is a parable extracted from Kill The Company by Lisa Bodell.

As Lisa says: "Our whole lives we are taught to conform. We begin by scribbling with crayons, but we learn very quickly to draw within the lines. We stop challenging assumptions..." It's not because people believe in something that it's necessarily true. Leaders and game changers don't accept things for what they are, but instead try to create how they should be. Would the world be a better place if Martin Luther King, Mahatma Ghandi or Nelson Mandela simply accepted things for what they were?

Unfortunately, it's not uncommon to hear: "That's just how things are." The reality is that you don't have to accept this limited view of the world. Next time that you feel challenged, will you incessantly try to reach for what you want or simply accept that it's off limits?

Don't be like the monkey in a cage... break free.

Thanks for reading!

Best,
Pedro