The Perils of Corporate Memes

There was a bird who refused to fly away with the flock. Sure enough, the winters came and the starving bird fell to the ground - unconscious. An unsuspecting bull came along and pooped over it. The warmth of the poop brought the bird into senses and she began chirping happily to be alive. A fox heard her happy song. She promptly took her out of the poop pile and made a lunch of the bird.

What's the moral of the story? There are many.

1. Never leave the group.

2. Anyone who puts you into shit, isn't necessarily your enemy.

3. When in shit, keep your mouth shut.

4. Anyone who pulls you out of shit, isn't necessarily your friend.

Do you find anything wrong with it? I didn't either. For a major part of my life, it made total sense. But I realise a major major problem with the first moral, if not all of it.

'Never Leave the Group'.

It is essentially commanding us to be part of the crowd. It is unsafe otherwise. Unfortunately, it is such a shallow deduction. The story and its morals were perhaps concocted more as part of humour. But how surreptitiously the moral sinks into us? It hits our lizard brain and reinforces the idea of staying in the herd. Which was essential to our survival in ancient days. Not today.

If we dissect the story just a little deeper, we can clearly see the bird was clearly a dumb one. She didn't meet her unfortunate fate because she didn't go with the group, rather she was dumb enough to not know the reason behind the flock leaving. And therein lies the difference. The crowd works because it provides you with a reasonable amount of survival vis a vis you going at it alone. That also limits what you can achieve.

So should you go with the crowd? or chart your own path?

You know what?? don't take my advice. or anyone else's!