Five monkeys were released into a room. As they looked around, they noticed in the center of the room a climbing rope hung from the ceiling, and at the top of the rope was a ripe banana.
In the corner of the room, stood a man dressed in fireman's garb, holding a fire hose.
One of the monkeys made a mad-dash for the rope, and started up toward the banana. As soon as he got about midway up the rope, the fireman sprayed him with the hose and knocked him off the rope before he could reach the banana. No sooner had he done that, than he sprayed the four remaining monkeys until they huddled shivering in the corner.
The following day, they released the monkeys back into the same room... another monkey made the dash up the rope. Immediately he was knocked off the rope by the strong spray of the firehose, and again, the remaining monkeys were sprayed into submission until they whimpered in the corner. This happened daily for a full week, until at the end of the week, none of the monkeys even approached the rope anymore, they just shivered and whimpered on the floor.
Starting the beginning of the next week, they removed one of the five monkeys, and replaced him with a "fresh" monkey who'd never been in the room before. He of course said to himself..."why isn't anyone going for the banana?"... and he started climbing the rope toward the banana. Before he could get near the banana, the other monkeys grabbed him, and dragged him to the ground, basically explaining in monkey language... "Hey, that's not the way we do things around here".
On day two, they inserted a second "fresh" monkey, and again... he made for the banana, and was dragged to the ground by the other monkeys... "Hey, that's not the way we do things.."
Day three, yet another fresh monkey... day four, fresh monkey and by day five... all five monkeys were fresh. None of them had ever experienced the fire hose, nor seen it working... yet none of them even made a move toward the banana. Because "that's just not the way we do things around here".
Eventually there were able to remove the fireman, and still not one of the monkeys would make a move toward the banana.
Why? Because that's just the way it had always been done.
Are you still doing business the way that it's always been done, or are you changing things up and risking the fire hose?
Think about it.
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