Monkey Business by Jill Rosenfeld Fast CompanyMarch 2000 Timm Ringhofer

Everyone probably has heard of the tale on how to trap a monkey by placing a bauble inside a narrow-necked bottle and then the monkey comes along to get the bauble. However, with his hand clenched around the bauble, the monkey is unable to get his hand out with the bauble it. He is also unwilling to give up the bauble, and therefore gets trapped by the human.

With this as a starting point, Flight of the Buffalo by James A. Belasco and Ralph C. Stayer gives this main idea. Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they haveand underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up. This is what traps some humans into doing the same thing for their whole lives.

A couple of people who work with monkeys in different ways were asked about the myth of being able to catch a monkey with the bauble in a bottle. Both people stated that it is exactly that, a myth. For proof, Fast Company went to the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston to test it on two African De Brazza monkeys. Over 33 minutes, neither of the monkeys attempted to get the watch from the bottom of the bottle. One of the monkeys did look at the bottle, but never did attempt to get the watch out.

Change is very difficult for myself. If things are working out fairly well, why fight it? Dont change just for the sake of changing is a motto that I like to follow. I am sure there are things out there in the great big world that I could accomplish, but I am quite happy being a teacher, a coach, a husband, and a father. I definitely dont want to change these things.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000