The Elephant’s Dilemma: You Don’t Know Your Own Strength

The following is adapted from The Elephant’s Dilemma, by Jon Bostock.

Imagine an elephant at one of those old-school circuses with a high-top tent, trapeze artists, the world’s hairiest man, and PETA-offenses galore. At a very early age, even before they teach it to jump through hoops, the elephant is tied up with a heavy chain around its leg. It’s held back and can’t roam free.

As the elephant grows, it doesn’t need a stronger chain to keep it restrained; it learned that it couldn’t get away, so it stopped trying. Now, a small rope around its leg keeps the elephant in place, and the poor creature has no idea that it could easily break free if it were willing to try.

Elephants are one of the strongest and most surprisingly agile animals in the world. But when elephants are held back as babies, they grow into big, powerful adults who still believe they’re held back.

The same thing happens to us humans at work. We learn the “rules” of corporate America, and they hold us back. We get stuck in ruts and stop striving for more. But just as the elephant could break free from its rope if it were willing to try, you too can break free of your tethers. I know, because I did it.

How I Broke Free of My Tethers

I worked at GE for many years, leading the company’s microwave oven product line, and I was held back without even realizing it. I was kept in place by the constraints of the business world I’d grown up in. I saw how my category was run, how business was performed, and I tethered myself to that.

But then, on a particularly gray Tuesday in 2010, I was reading the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America report.

As I studied the depressing report, I was hit by the extent of the obesity problem. Then, I saw the kicker: The report called out microwave ovens for contributing to the issue. Oh, shit, I thought. Microwaves are my life, and they’re terrible for everyone.

Then it dawned on me that I didn’t have to be the big, bad microwave manager. Instead, I could help change this story. I was in a position to make the microwave a tool for good instead of an instrument of obesity.

I went to my team and proposed that we focus on marketing microwaves as a way of preparing healthy food. I wanted to make microwaves work for a healthy lifestyle.

There was some natural skepticism, as there often is when you propose a change in a large company. But by proving this direction could still make us money, I got buy-in from the leadership. We created microwaves with easy buttons to cook grains and vegetables, and we provided cooking menus showing people how easy it was to prepare healthy food in their new microwave.

I’d love to say we single-handedly cured obesity at the press of a microwave button! Not really. But I know that our product sold well, and I like to think it was at least a shift in the right direction.

Importantly for me, it was a tug on the chain that I believed was around my ankle. It allowed me to reimagine what was possible at work and begin to break free.

You’re an Elephant Too

Chances are, you’re also an elephant. When you were younger, you entered the workplace and couldn’t even fathom the opportunity ahead of you. You showed up at your desk every day, worked hard, and played your part in the big, bureaucratic machine of corporate America.

Decades later, you’ve become pretty big in your area, but you’ve remained chained to the rhythm of every day. You sit in front of a computer screen, run through the motions, fixate on the next quarter’s goals, scroll Facebook, and watch the world grow up around you.

One day, you see an old college friend whose kid just graduated, or your niece turns eighteen, or your mentor passes away, and you realize life is slipping by while you’re stuck with your head down, oblivious to the days ticking past. You’re lost in the moment. You feel unfulfilled. You’re wondering if this job is all there is.

But you’re also strong. Powerful. Able to break free from boring business and create a more fulfilling existence. You have the potential to reimagine your future in the workplace. You can pull free from the chains of “how things are done” and find ways to make your future work more meaningful — even if it’s just by redesigning goofy microwave menus.

Elephants weren’t meant to be tethered. So it’s time to start tugging on your chain and break free.

For more advice on breaking free from work constraints, you can find The Elephant’s Dilemma on Amazon.

Jon Bostock was a tethered elephant at General Electric for eleven years until he made his move and became the COO at Big Ass Fans (true story, real name). After restructuring the company and focusing on long-term economic sustainability, he was successful in shepherding the company’s landmark sale. These concepts of disruption and sustainability inspired Jon to break free and start Truman’s, a company designed to reduce waste and clutter in the consumer cleaning products industry. Jon lives in New Orleans with his wife, Marigny, and their two children, Evan and Will.