Most lunch breaks the team here at Creative Content Company take a stroll down to the local Tesco, in Orton Wistow. There are 2 self check-outs and 3 check-outs where someone can serve you (like it used to be in the old days before people were replaced by gadgets).
The other day we went in to Tesco and there was a queue from the 2 self check-outs, all the way to the back of the shop, which is around 4 aisles away. Meanwhile, there is nobody in the queue for the 3 check outs where someone does it for you.
It’s a case of their already being a queue and then everyone joining it, nobody thinking outside the box or checking to see if there is another way of doing something.
Here is the interesting part, we are based in Tesla Court in Peterborough Business Park, we have got to know most of the business owners, directors and freelancers locally and it is always those that we see in the shorter queue with the 3 ladies at the check-out.
Is it a case of thinking outside the box? Do those that work for other people always follow the crowd, like sheep following the leader?
It got me thinking, is that what makes the difference between a business owner and those that work for a business owner? Do you need to think outside the box, take the risks and consider other options if you want to be an owner of your own business?
But what is it that makes the others stand in that long queue; don’t they wonder where the others are going to get served so quickly? Why is it they opt for the other queue day after day?
There’s a similar story about monkeys with a ladder and a bunch of bananas, they’re put in a cage with the bunch of bananas at the top of the ladder. As the monkey to the bananas cold water is sprayed on the other monkeys, as this continues the monkeys beat up the monkey that tries to go up the ladder and gets them wet.
Slowly each monkey is replaced with another and it goes up the ladder to get the bananas and the other monkeys beat him up. Eventually, after replacing the old monkeys with new ones, all the monkeys are scared of going up the ladder, but they have no idea why as they have never been sprayed with water or seen it happen.
So – which queue will you choose?
