THE CRAB SYNDROME !!! Let me ask u a trivia question??? Imagine an open basket with 10 huge crabs, 5 male & 5 female on a ship which sets sail fm Sydney to Singapore. Guess how many crabs will b left by the time the ship reaches Singapore??? Any guesses??? Whenever I have asked some of my friends they have all come up with varying answers depending on their own logic applied. Most of them had a number which was less than the number 10 based on their own rationale as to how many crabs managed to crawl out of the basket... Some said none as the basket is open & they all escaped....fair enough??? The correct answer is ALL TEN remained in the basket.... The reason being, when one tried to escape the other nine pulled it back.... This is what I term as the Crab Syndrome. Crab mentality, sometimes referred to as crabs in the bucket, describes a way of thinking best described by the phrase if I cant have it, neither can u. The metaphor refers to a pot of crabs. Individually, the crabs could easily escape from the pot, but instead, they grab at each other in a useless king of the hill competition which prevents any from escaping & ensures their collective demise. Unfortunately, a similar behavior can be found in humans as well. The analogy in human behavior is that of a group that will attempt to pull down any member who achieves success beyond the others, out of envy, conspiracy or competitive feelings. This term is broadly associated with short-sighted, non-constructive thinking rather than a unified, long-term, constructive mentality. It is also often used colloquially in reference to individuals or communities attempting to escape a so-called underprivileged life, but kept fm doing so by others attempting to ride upon their coat-tails or those who simply resent their success. Professionals in our corporate world experience this from time to time & try to play it safe often because of the fear of failure or the fear of humiliation in front of their peers as often described as the tall poppy syndrome. How dare u be better than m? is the kind of feeling one could experience as they start climbing up the corporate ladder. Professionals are scared to take risks for this fear of failure or humiliation by their peers & get into their circle of comfort as they seemed to be most often worried about what others will think of them if they fail. The fact is unless they RE-FRAME RISK & are prepared to fail, they are limiting their chances of success. Most leaders say they understand the importance of failure & the leanings fm them. Not many truly embrace it...... My personal view is that failure helps u get stronger & is the foundation to success. The more one fails, the faster they succeed. Learn to FAIL SMARTLY.... AVOID THE CRAB SYNDROME AT ALL TIMES BECAUSE U SHLD NOT B COMPETING WITH ANYONE ELSE BUT U!!! FOOD FOR THOUGHT!!!
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 15:06:11 +0000
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