The Mouse Trap

It was the last day of college and the last session on cross cultural management, with all topics covered and a little time to spare, our professor shared this story with us. The climax was a surprise, but an important lesson learnt at the end. All credits go to the author of this story, googled a lot, but couldn’t find a name. The story is about a rat living in a farmhouse who discovers that the farmer has ordered a rat trap. What happens then ….?

A rat residing in the walls of a farmer’s house decided to take a peek through a hole in the wall. What he saw was the farmer and his wife were opening a package. At first, he was excited, hoping for a nice surprise, maybe some cheese or something fancy. He was shocked to learn that the package carried a rat trap. Panicked, he calls a meeting to gather all of the farm animals and shares the horrifying news, “There’s a rat trap in the house!” 

The chicken, goat, and cow listened. They all understood how scared the rat was, but they offered no comfort. The chicken replied, “Rat, I’m sorry there’s a rat trap in the house, but I’m not sure what this has to do with me. Have you ever heard of a chicken getting caught in a rat trap?” 

Hearing the rat’s cries, the goat offered more sympathy, but said, “I’m sorry you’re concerned, but there’s nothing I can do but pray for you. Take care.” 

The cow simply replied, “Why am I here? I’m too big for that rat trap, it’s not for me,” and walked off swinging its tail left and right. 

Later that evening a loud “pap” was heard throughout the farm. As if something was caught in the trap that was set. Was it the rat ? The farmer’s wife went to check the trap, but it was dark, so she could not see that a venomous snake was stuck in the trap, not a rat. In the darkness, the snake bit her and the battle for survival began. 

The farmer rushed his wife to the doctor. She returned home with a high fever. The doctor prescribed chicken soup, so the farmer went out to the yard and brought back the main ingredient for the soup. Despite the soup, the wife’s conditions got worse. Neighbors and friends were constantly dropping by to keep her company. In order to show his gratitude, and make sure the visitors didn’t get hungry, the farmer then butchered the goat. Eventually the wife died and many people attended her funeral. The farmer then slaughtered the cow to prepare a feast for the family and guests. 

What do we learn? Those who were least bothered about the consequences suffered the most, they lost their lives…and the rat who was supposed to be caught in the trap went on to live. As the story says the “whole farmyard” is at risk and one must not overlook any danger. 

It's called the FiSH Philosophy

Once upon a time there was a cold and dreary little fish market in Seattle called the Pike Place Fish Market. The owner and the workers dreaded each day. Being in the fish business it was long, hard, cold, work! Then, one day they decided to become

World Famous…what changes did they make ? They just added the words ‘World Famous’ to their previous name and they became the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market…but how ?

It was summer last year when I purchased this book, “FISH Philosophy”. Well the book took me hardly 2-3 hours to complete but the impact it had on my life was incredible. The book talks about how one can transform his workplace or even his life, by enjoying whatever you do and be excited to do it again and again. As I was not working and was a student at a B-School then, I decided to implement whatever the book taught me, in my life.

The philosophy is not a tough nut to crack, it is very simple, and goes by applying four ingredients that will turn the place from stress and dullness into excitement and fun. The ingredients of FISH philosophy are as follows:

The First Ingredient:

Choose your attitude - It’s about who you are being while you’re doing what you’re doing. You have the freedom to choose your attitude: an optimistic and happy attitude, or a pessimistic and sad one. One needs to work on his attitude and work on it now as this sets the stage for all the other ingredients to happen. Similarly, at home, one needs to be happy, cheerful with good thoughts or grumpy. Focus on who you want to be and it will influence what you do.

The Second Ingredient:

Play- Don’t make a fuss out of deadlines and all the workload or pressure that is thrown up on you. If you cannot enjoy what you do, then try to have some pleasant moments between the heavy tasks you work on. This was tough for me as I had to complete my assignments and projects on time and also take care of some work at home daily. I prefer completing my work in a quiet environment and it was very irritating if someone disturbed me at that time. So slowly and steadily I learnt to balance everything and shared my experience with others in the family. This now leads us to the next ingredient.

The Third Ingredient:

Make their day - By having fun yourself, work on extending that to others who surround you. Make their day by expressing how you’re grateful to have them, or by cheering them up. Get them out of their misery by offering advice and help. You cannot imagine how cheerful you would be when giving a hand to someone. It can be your mom, your dad, siblings, relatives, friends, neighbors, colleague. But what matters the most is that you have shared that energy with the other person which will now make their day.

The Final Ingredient:

Be there – It often happens that when you have been burdened with tons of work, you ignore others and try to finish what is on your plate first. It is difficult to bring in a change immediately but one needs to adapt to it. Be present to your family, customers, colleagues, and people by giving full attention to those who call for your advice or help. Don’t be ignorant to those calls… get to answer them on the spot, or at least dedicate some time to connect with those you care about to listen to. Listen to the unsaid, and express your willingness to offer help if needed.

The story of the Pike Place Fish market makes one realize how teamwork and commitment can bring about a huge change. Though I have never been to Seattle, I have seen some videos of this place on YouTube and it’s really amazing to see how these people make their visitors and customers smile and give them a good time. The story doesn’t end here, there is another great book – FISH STICKS which I finished reading last week. If you haven’t yet, I suggest you to read the FISH series.