Thursday, December 30, 2010

A corporate story

This is story of a tiny little hardworking ant in a jungle too damn big. Here it goes...

So there was this ant, and she was all very hard working and sincere. But she had a very strong wish, she wanted to experience flying...she wanted to fly!

So one day, ant goes to her boss, The Crow, in her area.
Ant said, "O bird! Will you be so kind enough to grant my wish. I wish to enjoy the pleasure of flying."
Crow thought and replied, "Yes, why not! But I need to eat something before I can fly. What do you have?"
"I have my stack of Sugar for the year! You can have that.", charmingly said the ant.
Crow: "But I don't eat Sugar, bring me some insects and I will think about your request."
Ant went into deep thought, and then she started piling her stack of sugar out of her anthill into the open, so it will attract the insects.
Seeing this, the Crow got happy and had mouthful of insects. Crow asked the ant to come the next day :)
Next day when ant showed up, Crow was sitting with her boss, The Buffalo. Buffalo outright denied the birds request and said, I can't allow Crow to fly since he needs to pluck insects out of my back. But if ant can gather enough fodder for Buffalo to keep busy eating, maybe ant will get her wish.
So thought the ant, maybe if I put this effort, I will get my dearest wish. And so, ant set out to gather fodder for Buffalo straw by straw. After long time, ant gathered a stack the size of a buffalo's height. Seeing this, buffalo got happy and asked ant to come the next day for her wish.
Next day when ant showed up, Buffalo was sitting with his boss, the elephant. The elephant, outright denied the ant's request saying, if ant wants to get her wish, she should first get him enough sugar canes.
Ant went into deep thought, but worked hard enough to gather a huge stockpile of sugar canes from all across the forest worthy for the huge elephant. Now the elephant was happy. He asked ant to come the next day.
Next day when ant showed up, Elephant was sitting with his boss, the Dinosaur. The Dinosaur again denied the ant's request and asked ant to gather enough animals for Dinosaur to eat so he can grant ant's wish.
Ant was very troubled, first she was frustrated and secondly, she was so confounded as to how such a small ant can gather lot of animals together. So ant, again started collecting sugar. She then stockpiled it in open. Seeing this insects and rodents came to eat the sugar. Seeing rodents other animals and big birds of prey came to eat them. Thus, very soon there was a huge crowd of animals.
Seeing this Dinosaur was happy. And he asked ant to come the next day for her wish.
Apprehensively ant went the next day. Dinosaur was sitting with the Crow, Buffalo and elephant. All of them appreciated ant's work. Then Dinosaur said, "Ant I am going to grant your wish". Saying this, Dinosaur picked up the ant, put her on top of a leaf of a high branch of a tree and then blew her away with a strong breath. And so the ant flew with the wind and came down after a few minutes.

All these events left ant very sad (and old, she spent most of her life!), she thought, why did I not think of this myself. All Dinosaur did for me I could have done myself by climbing a tree and then jumping of it. I always relied on my hard work but never on my tiny little weight. Why did I not dare taking a little risk? Why did I not throw myself out to the wind on my own. Why did I not think beyond the obvious? WHY DID I RELY ON OTHERS HELP AND DIDN'T TRUST MYSELF ENOUGH?

10 comments:

  1. Quite realistic. Which character in the story do u represent? ;)

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  2. a very nice story.... i think m still the ant but a cunning and a lazy one ;)

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  3. Is there an option of not becoming the future crow/buffalo/elephant when one gets there?

    As for the ant - that's everybody's story ... you grow up wishing to be at point A .. you work hard & make sacrifices to be at point A .. and when you get there is doesnt feel as you had felt when you dreamt of "A" all this while... if only we depended lesser on other ppl's thoughts we could enjoy that moment of "A" .. but alas we grow up as emotional beings

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    1. Every individual is different, but its nature of our career that we have to take up roles of crow/buffalo/elephant etc. in name of aligning ourselves with the organization goals, personal career growth, understanding the bigger picture etc.

      Well I liked the thought "if only we depended lesser on other ppl's thoughts".
      I was reading on the same thing in 7 habits of highly effective people recently...

      Who posted this comment btw? :)

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    2. I'm someone who walked on the same path ... been the dissapointed ant .. when it was time to become the crow - I had to ask myself if I had an option ...
      I won't give the answer here cause your right - its an individual thing - so no self help advise ...

      btw: its anonymous for a reason, lets keep it that way :/

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  4. The guy who wrote the last comment seems to be different from the 1 who wrote the blog ...
    Does that old guy still write here? :)

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  5. DYK: Writing can be a great catharsis ...even if you don't write publicly :P

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