Intro
I’d like to tell a story that I think I first read in one of John C. Maxwell leadership books.  It’s about 5 different monkeys, their names have been changed to protect the innocent.  You will know who you are after your done reading this post.

Story
There was a large cage that had five monkeys in it. Well you know how much monkeys like bananas right? Someone tied a banana onto a piece of twine and hung it high in the center of the ceiling. It was hung so high that none of the monkeys could jump up and get it. The monkeys stood staring up at the bananas. The door to the cage was opened and a set of stairs were placed underneath the bananas so that it would allow a monkey to walk up and jump and get a banana.

After a while a monkey goes and starts climbing the stairs. When he reaches the second stair, all of the monkeys are sprayed with cold water. The monkeys retreat and stare once again. Another monkey decides he will try which resulted in all the monkeys getting sprayed. A strange thing occurs. When the next monkey tries to get a banana, the other four monkeys prevent him from trying by attacking him.

Then the water is cleaned up, and one monkey is replaced by a new one. Of course it also sees the banana and want to climb the stairs and get himself a treat. To his surprise he is attacked before he even gets to the stairs.

So the pattern is repeated. Remove one of the original monkeys, replace it with a new one, monkey tries to get banana and it attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm. This is done till there are no more original monkeys left in the cage.

So now after replacing all the original monkeys, none of them have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, none of the monkeys approach the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know, that is the way it’s always been done.

Why the Story?
I hate to say, but we have a little bit of monkey in all of us. How many of us heeded our fathers words when they said, “Get a good education and you’ll get a good job”. Well how can you argue with that I can hear you saying. Well the age old promise of working a 40 hour job for 40 years just isn’t holding true anymore. Tell that to the millions and millions of people who are layed off of their jobs, whose jobs have been outsourced, who owes between $80,000-$100,000 dollars for their education before they’ve even earned one dime, who got into a profession that isn’t in high demand, or those who are now qualified for a job that they will hate.

Now I certainly don’t have anything against a good education. You are going to have to be proficient at writing, math, communications, and some level of competency on the computer. Most of these things can be learned in high school. There are certainly a lot of lower priced colleges. The only thing your going to get when your done with Yale or another Ivy League school is a $150,000 dollar bill and a push into the 40-40 plan.

Alternatives
What are the alternatives? If you’re good enough to work in whatever your profession you do now, do it working for yourself. Become a consultant. Become an entrepreneur. Make your own job. Start a business. This is exactly what people who have realized the lie of the 40-40 plan are doing. They may still be employed, but have a 1-2 year plan on replacing their income or more, are willing to do what it takes, are not listening to the naysayers of their life, and are grabbing the bull by the horns so to speak.

Benefits
What are the benefits? How about reduced stress? How about enjoying your passion so as not to even think of work as work? How about retiring early, in better health, with real freedom.

So what are you doing? There is no one going to spray cold water on you. That banana is waiting for YOU and you better make sure you even like them to begin with.

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