I finally got round to watching The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final film in the Batman Trilogy. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it but it was ‘family movie night’ and I was outvoted!
Those of you who have seen the film will know that in it there is a dark prison, located way down beneath the earth’s surface and its inmates face the ultimate cruelty – impossible hope.
There is a tall tower carved out of the rock, rising many storeys to the surface and the blue sky is visible when you stand at the bottom of this tower and look straight up.
Prisoners are free to attempt to climb out and do so from time to time, with a rope tied around their waist to catch them should they fall.
The film explains that there is a legend known to all the suffering prisoners, passed from one generation to the next, about the only person ever to succeed in this escape – a child.
It is in this subterranean hell that a crippled Batman, i.e. Bruce Wayne, has been left to die.
Long story short, he attempts and fails at his escape, not once but twice.
At the point of surrender, an old prisoner who has befriended him tells him the secret of the child who successfully climbed the tower and escaped: the boy climbed without the rope.
It turns out that the weight of the rope, or rather the embedded thoughts created by wearing the rope, that one is going to fall is just enough of a burden to ensure failure.
The old man tells Bruce that to have a chance, “you must climb without the rope”.
This is a fantastic parable for success, buried in this Hollywood blockbuster that I’m sure a few will notice or take notice of.
You see, most people try to achieve their big ambitions – especially the really big ones like financial freedom – whilst still dragging industry norms, counterproductive beliefs and old established conventions with them.
Tied to them by heavy rope even!
The higher they try to climb, the heavier the burden of the rope.
The truth is, if you want to achieve extraordinary things, then you will have to sever your ties to ALL ordinary ideas, behaviours and business practices. And yes, that does mean you can’t toe the line and do the same things as everybody else.
Ever since I started the Entrepreneur’s Circle over three years ago now, I have talked about the significance of 1, 4, 15, 60 and 20.
It is a fact that in any particular sector at any particular time, around 60% of people are “getting by”, whilst 20% of them are “struggling”. That’s 80% of the people in your industry or sector not achieving the results that they set out to achieve when they started in business.
Metaphorically speaking at least, they are down at the bottom of that tower, looking up at the blue sky but continually failing to get up and out.
1% of course are already there at the top and there’s 4% and 15% well on their way.
If you want to join them, YOU MUST CLIMB WITHOUT THE ROPE.
To be clear, I’m not talking here about cavalier risk. What I mean is that there is a rope tied around your waist. It may have been thinned by you or, alternatively, it may be as thick and heavy as the huge ropes tied to cruise ships’ anchors. You might want to give it a pull and examine all that is tied to its other end because, I promise you, shedding the dead weight doesn’t half ease the journey and speed things up.
The heaviest dead weights that are holding people back are rarely things or other people; they are thoughts and beliefs.
Time and time again in my Mastermind Groups, we find that the real blocker to step change performance is between the business owners’ ears. It’s what’s going on in their head and it is so liberating when we’re able to simply untie the blockages that have been holding them back and release them to climb without the rope.
So important do I believe this element is to achieving super success in business (or, for that matter, in any other aspect of your life) that I’m currently working with my good friend, Terry Gormley (check out his article over the page) to pull together a three or four day event that will enable any EC member who wants to, to shed the shackles that are holding them back and liberate themselves to climb that tower, towards that blue sky, devoid of rope.
Watch this space and, in the meantime, don’t forget that Batman himself is a parable. He’s unlike pretty much all other super heroes in so far as he does not have super powers. Batman, you see, is simply a creation of Bruce Wayne’s decision. Batman made himself into a master detective, an extraordinary athlete, martial artist and fighter and created his own intimidating personality.
The reality – and no, I’m not being glib – is that you can take a decision and make yourself into whatever it is that you want… providing you climb without the rope.
