It’s August, which is the height of the summer in Virginia. Like most people during this time of year, I like to seek refuge from the heat near the water. Fortunately, I can still visit the house I grew up in, and that house sits about 30 yards from a little saltwater creek that’s one of hundreds feeding into the Lower Chesapeake Bay. One of the best things I enjoy about that creek is spending time on the dock. That wooden gangway has furnished me with many fond memories like squirt fights with the garden hose, pushing my older brother in the water, having long meaningful talks with my mother, and I was even married on it. But by far, one of my favorite memories was that of crabbing.
For those of you who don’t know what crabbing is, I’ll give you a brief overview of things you need:
- Find a saltwater creek or shallow bay.
- Get some half-rotten anything, preferably chicken necks.
- Find about 10 – 20 feet of twine.
- Have a net handy— (preferably one without gaping holes).
- Last but not least, get a 5-gallon bucket to put your crabs in.
Once you have all of the appropriate items, tie your chicken to the string and throw it out in the water. Attach the other end to a stick and then… wait until something tugs. That’s crabbing! If you’re pretty good, you can catch a half dozen or so in an hour. If you get a few friends and family involved, you can fill up that five gallon bucket in no time.
It’s what happens in that bucket once you toss a crab in it that teaches you a lot about business—(and life, for that matter). Everyone knows crabs have two very large pincher claws. When crabs get agitated, they do what crabs do best—PINCH. When anger and fear is combined with having nowhere to go, they thrash around and try to grab anything that is near them. That’s exactly what happens when you put more and more crabs in that bucket. They clamp down on each other like a vice and become one tangled, interlocked mass of crustacean. After a while, one crab wiggles free and starts scrambling up to the top of the pile, and right as it gets a leg or two out of the bucket—SNAP! One of those other crabs clamps down on him, and he’s stuck and will never get out.
The lesson here is—people can be a lot like crabs when you attempt something a little off the wall. This is especially true when you have a radical business idea that could finally get you on the map, but also has the potential to make you lose everything. It can be something like starting your own business or maybe implementing an idea in your department that you know will triple your company’s retention. Whatever it is, there’s a lot on the line, but you know it’s a game changer.
The crab in a bucket phenomenon begins when you start sharing your wild idea. A good amount of people around you do something quite interesting: they try their absolute best to convince you to stay right where you are. As you try to make your way out of your own “bucket,” they will “clamp down” on you by sighting statistics of how many people have failed before you, or how you have lost your mind. Maybe they will say things like “It might be too risky to do it right now!” or “You are being reckless! Think how this might affect your family.” What’s interesting is they think they are doing you a favor by attempting to keep you safe. And that is exactly what happens to all those crabs that hang out in the bucket. They don’t let anyone out because it’s safer to hold tightly to each other, and all of them wind up going nowhere!
I was one of those crabs, and I tried my hardest to get out of that bucket, and people would say all kinds of things to keep me from doing what I am doing now, like “You should get a corporate job with a steady paycheck.” “This is just all about you Chris. Think about how this can affect your family.” “Have you really thought about this?”
This might sound familiar to you. Most comments, you can shrug off when you are determined, but what happens when one of those crabs—umm, I mean people— is someone you respect? That’s what happened to me, and a few things really helped me gain clarity. Most of your co-workers and friends care about your well-being and just want two things for you: They want you to be okay (safe) and they want you to do well (succeed). The challenge comes when you try to decipher which of the two they think you should be concerned about. People who are focused on being safe attempt to persuade you to stay in a predictable “safe” place (in the bucket). On the other hand, people who are guiding you towards success help you explore and acknowledge the risks, but also focus your energy on “getting out of the bucket” with your idea.
Here are some questions that might help you to figure out which is which:
- Is the person focusing only on their perception of your risks or your actual risks?
- Are they asking you tough questions in order to help with your due diligence, or are they trying to talk you out of it?
- Has that person ever attempted to get out of their own bucket, and if so, are they imparting wisdom that might help?
Find a few people who can help you move forward—those who give you a constructive balance of things to consider while encouraging you to take necessary risks for success. That alone is not going to guarantee it will work, but it will help you on your journey to making a big splash with your idea. Maybe that’s the real reason why I always let the crab that managed to get out of that five gallon bucket find its way back into the creek!
