Once upon a time, a group of men lived in a cave, bound to a stone. They were trapped for so long that they forgot about the outside world. Every day, someone brought them food, and they lived their lives inside the cave.
Because they were stuck in a small space, they couldn’t see beyond it, so their understanding of the world was limited. They watched shadows on the cave walls and speculated about what was real.
Sometimes, they saw shadows of things like horses and carts, and other times, they saw wild animals pass by. They started making predictions, like seeing horse and cart shadows every tenth day, or wild animal shadows in the summer.
They became experts at interpreting the shadows and gave each other titles like “mystic” or “decoder.” Their lives revolved around these shadow observations.
One night, one of the men broke free and ventured outside the cave. He was amazed by the moon and stars and spent the night exploring the world outside. But when he returned to the cave in the morning, the bright sunlight blinded him.
Slowly, his eyes adjusted, and he saw the world outside the cave—the trees, flowers, animals, and even a king and his guards. He realized that the shadows they saw in the cave were just reflections of the real world.
Excitedly, he told his friends about his discoveries, but they laughed at him and said he was crazy. They didn’t believe him and challenged him to analyze the shadows again. But now, he couldn’t see them the same way.
His friends thought he was trying to escape from reality and mocked him. This story teaches us that what we perceive as reality might be limited, and we should be open to new ideas.
I genuinely do understand when clients say they’re looking for a change, but don’t know what it is yet or how to achieve it. Because I have been there, done that and thankfully was lucky enough to walk away to now be doing a job where I never have to think “Thank God it’s Friday (TGIF).”
