Free the Elephant!

Pooja is a quick learner and efficient. Put her on the new project ordered Swamy, the newly promoted Vice President of the Technology group. She however lacks the temperament to drive the project, find someone else to do it reasoned Swamy and ended the discussion.

Swamy was not very happy. He regarded Pooja highly and wanted to entrust on her more responsibilities. Her talent, skill, and potential were visible to all, but her.

He was impressed with Pooja the first time they worked together on a challenging project couple of years ago. He realized that she had a knack to pick up the nuances and had the ability to simplify concepts logically and deliver outstanding individual results.

He tried to reason with her many times and once tried to get her to lead rather than follow, but it ended up in quite a disaster.

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Pooja sat on the desk staring at an email. Wow, Satya got promoted so early in his career, good for him, how I wish I was as talented as him she thought. She recalled him being a nice and hardworking guy. She mentored him when he joined the organization as a fresher.

While she was lost in thoughts… Satya walked over. Pooja saw him and congratulated him excitedly. He looked at her and gave a sheepish smile and invited her to the party he was throwing to celebrate his promotion.

He then told her that this would not have happened if not for her. He said he learnt so many things from her and learnt the right way of doing things. He then made a statement which made Pooja think hard. He said… “Pooja, if I have even 1/10^th of your capability, I will go places. I always wonder why you have not risen up the ranks when you have so much talent.”

Pooja laughed it off and said Satya was pulling her leg. Satya with a stern face replied…”if only you knew what you were capable of”…and walked away.

Pooja went home and thought about it. People more often than not seem to be in awe of her and her work. Yes, I understand things fast and get work done. But everyone does that, how am I different? She wondered. Why do people keep telling me that I deserve to be in a way higher position than I am currently in.

Pooja was happy with her work, company, and salary. Her boss was always appreciative and took care of her very well. However, he lamented the fact that she did not think she was capable enough to handle bigger things. If things were forced on her, she usually found ways to let someone else take charge and played a supporting role. The management eventually stopped asking her to take any upcoming opportunities.

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One day, Pooja and her young daughter Sneha went to the zoo. Sneha saw the elephants and was very excited. She started asking Pooja lot of questions. One question caught Pooja off guard. She asked… Mom, look at the elephant, it is so huge and strong. Yet, it is bound by a flimsy rope and is tied to a piece of wood that is stuck to the ground! The elephant can just walk away, why doesn’t it?

Pooja had no answer, she was equally intrigued too. Just then a Mahout came over, Sneha asked him that question. He laughed and said…”Elephant does not know that it has so much strength, only we do”.  

He then proceeded to explain… The elephant thinks that it cannot break the rope and get free.

Upon questioning further, the Mahout replied… when the elephant was young, it was tied to a tree trunk with an iron chain. The young elephant tried a lot to free itself and failed. Eventually it gave up trying to get free as it thought it was of no use. When this happened, the Mahout started using a flimsy rope to hold the elephant.

Even when the elephant grew and gained a lot of strength, it did not try to break free from the flimsy rope. Upon hearing this Sneha bursted out laughing and commented “silly elephant”.

This was a moment was an epiphany for Pooja. She understood what her problem was. She had shackled herself with doubts that were not valid. She had to break free and she suddenly felt she could.

The next day, she marched into the VP’s office and said…. Listen… for this project to succeed, this is what I will need…. And on her way out, she said…by the way, I want to lead this project, leaving the VP behind in amazement and mixed feelings about her new found confidence.