I have always loved storytelling as a way of engaging with an audience and using the story to share a life lesson. As anyone that has worked with me over the past 20+ years, my absolute favorite is the apocryphal story about Killing the Madman. Don’t worry, no Madman or anyone else is harmed in this story…
Let me paint the picture for you:
It’s a beautiful day, you’ve been working your tail off and you finally have a day off to spend with your sweetheart. You decide to have a picnic at your favorite spot. Beautiful river, you can hear the crash and see the mist from the waterfall about 100 yards downstream. Absolutely picture perfect day, just awesome.
Just as you spread out your blanket and start to unpack the wine, you hear a shout from nearby. “Help, help I can’t swim!”. You turn around, and sure enough, some guy is floating down the river, shouting for help. Before you even have a chance to think about it, you run to the water’s edge, jump in and swim out to rescue the guy floating down the river.
Just as you get him to shore, you turn around and there are now TWO guys floating down the river, shouting “Help, help I can’t swim!” You jump in, swim to the first person, grab him and swim back to shore. But by this time, you are close to the waterfall and can’t save the second person before he is swept to his death off the falls. As you lie exhausted on the river bank, you hear “Help, help I can’t swim” yet again and you now see FOUR people floating down the river. All four perish as they, too, are swept over the falls.
In this story, the people represent problems. So the moral of the story is that instead of jumping in after all the people (problems) your best solution is to go upstream and kill the madman that is throwing everyone in the water.
I love this story because it reflects what so often happens in life and in business. Instead of identifying and resolving the underlying issues, we often keep chasing after the symptoms and the problems never go away.
Is your Madman that you:
- Are unhappy in your current role?
- Wish you had a better boss?
- Want to take control of your life and your future?
- Want to be in control of your own schedule?
- Find yourself out of work and searching for a job that you really don’t want?
If so, then franchise ownership could be for you – and I can help. Reach out to me at rkinder@franchoice.com or call me at 817-296-2717. Let’s kill your Madman together…
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