Once upon a time there was a prince who after suddenly seeing the elephant on the way to the forest stopped. He was curious to learn from a man who had full control over the elephant, how a huge creature like the elephant was being controlled by only a small rope tied to his front leg.
This elephant was not shackled by the chains, he was not trapped in a cage.
Don’t you think, it would be very easy for a creature like an elephant to break the rope and escape from the situation he has been put in? In spite of having much more power than a tiny little human being, for some reason, the elephant accepts the situation.
The man who was controlling the elephant said the following to the Prince: “When this elephant was young, I used the same size rope to tie him and at that time this rope was enough to keep him under control. As the elephant grew up, he became conditioned to believe, he can never break this rope due to which I am still able to control him with the same rope”.
When the Prince heard this, he was amazed. These big creatures like elephants can break free from their bonds at any time, but because they are conditioned, they get stuck for a lifetime.
Have we ever tried to figure out which are the areas where we are stuck due to our belief system?
After Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi made the announcement of the 21 days lock down, since elevator service is not explicitly listed in essential services, we were getting queries from many customers and from our service teams on how we will continue assisting our customers in case of an emergency.
We had multiple options:
Option 1 was to tell our customers that since elevator service is not listed among essential services, there is nothing much we can do in the current situation
Option 2 involved finding ways our customer engineers could get curfew passes so they could extend their support during an emergency in the lockdown period.
Based on the guidance I got from my management, I pleaded with the authorities in Gurgaon for curfew passes. Instead of giving up like an elephant, I made multiple attempts to make the authorities understand the importance of elevator emergency service. In a few days, the authorities got elevator emergency service included in the list of essential services in the Gurgaon region.
I would like to conclude with the famous saying by a renowned artist named Salvador Dali “Intelligence without Ambition is a Bird without Wings”. Elephants like to dance and Birds like to fly. They might have intelligence; they might have the prowess, but without ambition they will end up in the mode of submission. Let’s not cry but prepare ourselves in such a way that we are ready to Fly.
Author of this story is Mr. Varun Kataria who currently works as a Business Development Manager for Schindler India, Gurgaon having professional experience of 10 years in Service Sales. Prior to joining Schindler India in 2012, he has worked with Blue Star in Service Sales, a leading air conditioning company.
Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal.
