The Black Crab Syndrome

No, not a new ailment. My friend Dan Miller explains:

In his book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," Robert Kiyosake tells the story of the Hawaiian Black Crabs. If you go down to the beach early in the morning you can find black crabs. You can put them in your bucket and continue walking on the beach. Now those crabs start thinking, "We are bumping around in this little bucket making a lot of noise but going nowhere." Eventually, one crab looks up and thinks, "There's a whole new world up there. If I could just get my foot up over the edge, I could get out, get my freedom and see the world in my own way." So he stretches up, pushes a little, and sure enough, gets one foot over the edge. But just as he is about to tip the balance and go over the edge - a crab from the bottom of the bucket reaches up and pulls him back down. Instead of encouraging him and seeing how they could help each other get to freedom one by one, they pull anyone attempting to get out back down into that confining bucket where death will come quickly.

Unfortunately, many of us live around a bunch of black crabs, ready to ridicule any new idea we have and just as eager to pull us back down to their level of performance. I have found that one of the key characteristics of successful people is that they hang around people who are performing at the level at which they want to perform. There will always be naysayers and whiners; avoid them. Find winners and spend time with them!