The Story of The Eagle…

by Kunal Rathi

The Eagle has the longest life-span of its’ species. It can live up to 70 years. But to reach this age the eagle must make a hard decision.

During its’ 40’s:

Its’ long and flexible talons can no longer grab pray which serves as food. Its’ long and sharp beak becomes bent. Its’ old-aged and heavy wings, due to their thick feathers, become stuck to its’ chest and make it difficult to fly.

Then, the eagle is left with only two options: DIE or go through a painful process of change which lasts 150 days.

The process requires that the eagle fly to a mountain top and sit on its’ nest. There the eagle knocks its’ beak against a rock until it plucks it out. After plucking it out, the eagle will wait for a new beak to grow back and then it will pluck out its’ talons. When its’ new talons grow back, the eagle starts plucking its’ old-aged feathers. And after five months, the eagle takes its’ famous flight of rebirth and lives for another 30 more years.

Now the question arise: Why is change needed?

• Many times, in order to survive we have to start a change process.
• We Sometimes need to get rid of old memories, habits and other past traditions.
• Only freed from past burdens, can we take advantage of the present.

Now you would be thinking, “What this have to do with management?”

The answer is very simple and basic:

• If you want to survive in the market, business need to have a changing process and less of resistance to changes.
• Old ways of working should be changed with the changing environment in which businesses are, or the competitors can take a full advantage over you.
• Businesses (i.e. people who manage) should learn from the past mistakes (of their as well as other firms), and then they can take advantage of the present.

 

Rest is very simple. Thereby, an eagle teaches us a good management lesson but more importantly, a lesson for a good life. Here we can see that every element of nature teaches us a lesson in one way or the other, its only on the individuals if they see it or not.

Source: Email & Self.