Story Time
THE EXPERIMENT
A group of scientists placed 5 monkeys in a cage, and in the middle, a ladder with bananas on top.
Every time a monkey climbed up the ladder, the scientists soaked the rest of the monkeys with cold water.
It didn't take long for the monkeys to catch on. After a while EVERY time a monkey started to climb the ladder, the other monkeys would beat up the one on the ladder to avoid the cold shower.
After some time no monkey dare to go up the ladder regardless of the temptation, the punishment was too severe.
At this point the scientists decided to substitute one of the monkeys with another one. The FIRST thing this new monkey did was start to climb the ladder, immediately the other monkeys pulled him down and beat him up.
After several beatings the new member learned not to climb the ladder even though he never knew why.
Next a second monkey was substituted and the same process occurred. The (new) first monkey even participated in beating up the (new) second monkey. A third monkey was changed and the same thing repeated. The fourth was substituted and the beatings continued and then finally the fifth was replaced.
What was left in the cage was a group of 5 monkeys that even though had never received a cold shower, continued to beat up any monkey who attempted to climb the ladder!
Now if it were possible to ask these monkey’s why they would beat up those who tried to climb the ladder, I bet their answer would be, “I don’t know. That’s just the way things are done around here.” Now does this sound familiar to you???
Often in life we carry on traditions and ways of thinking without even knowing why we are inclined to act this way, citing that it’s just the way that things have always been. However, just because that’s the way things have always been, it doesn't necessarily mean that its the right, right? So I encourage you to ask yourself, why do you do what you do? Would you continue to do the same if you knew of a different/better way?
And if you found this story interesting, don’t hesitate to share this with others as they too might be asking themselves why we continue to do what we are doing the way we are doing them if there is a different way out there...
