Escape the Mundane + Experience the Remarkable

Escaping the Crab Bucket

bucket-of-crabs

There is a very intriguing trait of crabs. When placed in a bucket, a single crab easily climbs out. Adding two or more crabs to the bucket, however, none will ever escape. The lower crabs will grab onto the higher climbers and yank them down. This phenomenon is analogous to anyone striving for a better life. Your current scenario is the bucket and your critics are the fellow crabs. And the world is not short of crabs who love to pull you down.

The Escape

After weeks of brutal torture, André Devigny successfully escaped a WWII POW camp by, among other things, scaling a massive fortress wall. Talk about climbing out of a mighty extreme bucket! And he did so when the German army considered his living arrangements permanent. Yet he didn’t allow his current situation to determine his future. Neither should anyone else.

Everyone looking to escape his or her circumstances will face similar detractors. Remember, those who think you can never break free will forever doubt your intentions. So it’s best to realize early on that no matter what you do, others will find ways to criticize.

Luckily we are not crabs. By recognizing that others are trying to pull you down, you can overcome their flak. We are free to create a better lifestyle and the commentators can stay in their self-imposed lair of fear. Also, we are not in a bucket, we can choose who we associate with. If someone says you cannot do something, impose a social embargo and cut all ties.

Put in other words; ditch the critics and their pent-up hostility towards success. You have a remarkable life ahead and you don’t need them.

Good luck climbing out of your bucket!

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Continue the Conversation:

  • http://thegreatofficeescape.com Mike

    Ha! I never knew that about crabs. That’s fascinating.

    I had a few “crabs” in my life when I started my journey from tired rat-race administrative assistant to freelance web guru – incidentally, those crabs are not longer in my life. It’s hard “letting go” sometimes, but often for the best!
    .-= Mike´s last blog ..New Workplace Trends: 9 to 5 is So Last Decade! =-.

  • http://www.bradleygauthier.com Bradley Gauthier

    Mike, thanks for the comment! I agree it can be hard leaving the “crabs,” but looking at the bigger picture, completely worth it

  • http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com Maren Kate

    Interesting analogy – i love it when people weave a business story out of something completely separate :) keeps it interesting… you are very right, presently i am scaling some entrepreneurial walls of my own but you just gotta keep pushing through :)

  • http://www.bradleygauthier.com Bradley Gauthier

    Thanks!

  • shaheen

    I hope you don’t mind, but I have borrowed an extract from your blog entry here to make a point in my blog entry today. 
    http://allotment2kitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/bucket-of-crabs.html

  • Jeremey K

    Great post!
    But i have one question:

    What if i am on the “bottom” of my “bucket” and the only way out seems to be to”pull” the other “other” “crabs” (or germans) out of my way, but they keep misinterpreting my behavior as “criticism”?

    Thanks!