Once Upon a Business – Episode 88
Who’s In My House?
Lisa Bloom: There was a time when the elephant was the king of the jungle. In those days, elephants were not like they are today. They had small ears and not very good memories. But this story tells of how that all changed. One day, Bushbuck returned home and found, to her surprise, that the door of her house was open. That is strange, she thought. I’m sure I closed my door when I left home. So she called out, is there anyone in my house? Yes, came a deep voice. It is I, the eater of bushbucks, and I’m coming to eat you.
Hi, I’m Lisa Bloom, the story coach, and you’re listening to Once Upon A Business. In each episode, we explore a story, a fairy tale, folk tale, or traditional story, so that we can discover the amazing lessons relevant for business and for entrepreneurs.
Little Bushbuck leapt up in alarm and ran for her life. Through the forest, she sped until, bang. She bumped into elephant. What’s up, Bushbuck? Trumpeted elephant. Oh, mighty king of the jungle, please help me. Someone has moved into my house while I was away, and he says that he will eat me. Hmm, said the Elephant. Well see about that. Come on, Bushbuck, lets go back and sort this out.
So Elephant accompanied Bushbuck back to her house, and when they got there, Bushbuck hid behind Elephant, who called who is it inside Bushbuck’s house? It is I. Came the voice, the eater of elephants, and im coming to eat you. Hoorah, trumpeted elephant. Lets go. And nearly trampling poor Bushbuck underfoot. He charged back up the jungle path. Bushbuck sprinted after him. Theyd not gone far when they ran into lion.
Whats going on, roared lion. Theres a monster inside Bushbuck’s house, said Elephant, trembling from trunk to tail. A monster, huh, said lion. Let me see for myself. So back they went, lion leading, followed by elephant, followed by Bushbuck, until they reached her house. Who is it inside Bushbuck’s house, roared Lion. It is I, came the voices before, the eater of lions, and im coming to eat you, too. Well see about that, said lion, and padding his way forward, he thrust his head inside Bushbuck’ house.
The only one there was a mischievous frog who hopped between lions legs and, croaking with laughter, disappeared into some nearby grasses. Well, word of what happened soon spread through the jungle, and elephant was so ashamed of his foolishness that he hid for days to cover his embarrassment. In fact, he was so embarrassed, his little ears started to grow and grow until they were big enough to cover his shame. And it wasn’t long before lion took his place as king of the jungle. And as for elephant, well, he could never forget what happened, which is perhaps why they say to this very day that elephants never forget.
This is a tale from Storytellers Way by Ashley Ramsden. I love this story. There’s something so satisfactory about a story that explains a phenomenon in nature so strange that it seems to call for an unusual explanation. The huge ears of the elephant, how could they possibly have evolved? Well, here we are. This story has an answer. What I love about this story is that as a kind of creation story, that is a story that speaks to how things come about. It is deeply embedded in the animal kingdom. The anomalies and behaviors in the animals often serve as a metaphor for how we humans could and should behave.
So in this story, elephant was considered the king of the jungle. But we see that size and force were not enough for him to hold onto the title. Being king requires courage, just like lion showed when they went back to Bushbuck house to figure out what was going on there. By virtue of his courage, he gets to be king. Rightly so. But what of the elephant? I love that his intentions were good. He tried to defend Bushbuck to help him out, but was instead confronted by his own fear and had to flee.
I think we can all relate to that. We might want to be brave, but so often we get overcome by fear and find that we have no choice but to escape. As a business owner, there are many opportunities to be brave, and it can be really challenging sometimes. Our fear can overcome us. Whenever I’ve been involved with any kind of program launch, I always feel like I need nerves of steel. It’s so hard. You never know whether your launch will be successful. And it’s usually after weeks and months of hard work. And just when you think it’s all over and it’s been a failure, sometimes it can revive and you get lots of sales. Nerves of steel.
In the story, elephant fails. He runs away in fear. He’s ashamed of his foolishness and hides away in embarrassment. In business, who has not felt that? I think we all know what it feels like to try to hide our mistakes. I remember when I came clean with a colleague and admitted a failure. It was such a relief. The vulnerability of admitting mistakes can be very difficult, but it’s really important. In this story, Elephant doesn’t allow himself this vulnerability and instead grows big ears to hide behind to hide his shame. It’s a great lesson that hiding is not a great way to heal and also is quite impossible.
No matter how big an elephant’s ears are, we can’t exactly miss him. He’s huge. But he does remember his mistake. In fact, that’s why they say elephants never forget. I think that’s a good lesson. We should remember and learn from our mistakes, but also to share them. We don’t need to hide. We can recover much quicker in fact, when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, to share and learn from our mistakes.
I love that the big scary voice was in fact just a mischievous frog. How often do we find that our fears are misguided, that the big scary monster is only in our mind. And in reality, our troubles are much smaller and insignificant than the story we imagine about them. It reminds me of a time during my studies when I was terrified to give a presentation. It was at the height of my stage fright and the thought of talking in front of a room of 20 other students made me feel sick.
I was so nervous that my legs and hands were shaking and my voice would barely come out of. Just then a friendly classmate said to me, Lisa, we’re all on your side. Everything’s going to be fine. You’re doing great. I realized in that moment that the big scary monster was just a mischievous little frog. I took a deep breath, calmed myself and continued to give a really good presentation.
In business, there can be a lot of scary monsters, from trying to make sales to keeping up with cash flow to designing great programs. In reality, they are just mischievous frogs. We can be like lion. Just go on in, find the frog and chase it out of the cave because we have work to do. No time for monsters. Bushbuck and elephant are relying on lion. Our clients are relying on us.
I’m Lisa Bloom and you’ve been listening to Once Upon A Business. You can find out more about me at story-coach.com. That’s story-coach.com. Once Upon A Business is part of the Mirasee FM podcast Network, which also includes such shows as Consciousness Explored and Just Between Coaches. To catch the great episodes that are coming up on Once Upon A Business, please like and follow us on Mirasee FM’s YouTube channel or your favourite podcast player. And if you enjoyed the show, please leave us a comment or a starred review. It’s the best way to help us get these ideas to more people. Thank you. We’ll see you next time.