This is little story of the cows and
rhinos. Of course I can’t take credit for this it was developed by Scot
Alexander, but here is my adapted version of it.
There once was a herd of cows out in this cow pasture. And of course there was
grass and manure all over the place. But out in the middle of this herd of cows
was this rhino, and he was totally out of place. Six thousand pounds of muscle;
and thick armor of skin, with this big horn sticking out of his head. And the
rhino wanted to leave the cow pasture and go to the promise land. And off into
the distance you can see the promise land. But to get to the promise land you
must first go through the jungle. The jungle is filled with thrones, quicksand
and hunters; but the rhino has that 6 inch thick skin.
Contrary to the better judgment of the cows, and some of these seem to be very
learned cows; the rhino leaves the cow pasture. And won’t you know it there’s
adversity, hunters shooting at him, quicksand etc. Eventually the rhino meets up
with some other rhinos and they say to him we’ll help you get through the
jungle. There will still be some adversity but we’ll show you where the
quicksand is and you don’t have to walk into the arrows, right? It’ll still be a
bit of a struggle but we’ll help you to make it a nicer ride.
Eventually our rhino friend makes it through the jungle and to the promise land.
And there is your wonderful Starbucks establishment; just kidding. What does our
rhino do? Jumps back into the jungle. Why? To help the other fledgling rhinos
get through the jungle.
And then one day when as our rhino is relaxing, laying in his mud hole, he
notices other rhinos coming out of the jungle. One by one they’re coming out of
the jungle and he asks where are these rhinos coming from? And in a moment of
clarity he realizes it must be the cow pasture. These rhinos were actually cows
it’s just that they had been conned into believing they were cows. So
convincingly that they even looked like cows, and even smelled like cows.
We’re all rhinos. We were born risk takers; all this self imposed limitations,
is all just a story.
