Life Lesson – “Useless Competition”
Crabs in a bucket are referred to as the crab mentality. It is best described by the phrase, “If I can’t make it, neither can you”. Working together as a team, the crabs could easily escape from the bucket. Instead, the crabs grab one another and pull the other one down. As each crab races to the “king of the hill” competition, ultimately it prevents any of the other crabs from escaping the bucket. Ultimately these crabs faced their demise like so many employees experience in their careers. When you pull down others, you also keep yourself down on the bottom of the ladder.
While mentoring a young employee, I suggested two options that they would experience while climbing the corporate ladder. The first choice was to help people all along the way, and the other choice was not help others, thereby getting caught up in “the crab bucket.” The crab mentality theory broadly associates with being shortsighted, non-constructive thinking, rather than a unified, team-approach and long-term constructive mentality.
In the Athletic Mindset we encourage everyone to help one another, and incorporate teamwork whenever you can. It is a lot easier to climb up and out of the bucket or carry the football down the field when all of your teammates are working together towards the same goal.
If you find yourself in the ole crab bucket, look around for those that might be pulling you down. Unfortunately, as the old saying goes, “misery loves company.” Co-workers and colleges, who might be insecure, jealous or selfish, will indeed ride on the crab that seems to be getting to the top of the corporate bucket. Don’t let other employees pull you down. If you find someone pulling you down, reach down and see what you can do to help pull them up.
Having the Athletic Mindset is when every crab is free to climb up out of the bucket!
Randy Friedman is author of both books, Your Inner Swing & The Athletic Mindset
