Do You Climb Without The Rope When Marketing in Eastbourne?
The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final film in the Christian Bale Batman Trilogy, is our unlikely source for this week’s Top Tip Tuesday.
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.
It is in this subterranean hell that a crippled Batman, i.e. Bruce Wayne, has been left to die.
Long story short, but 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 a Hollywood blockbuster that I’m sure few will notice.
Because 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.
Metaphorcially, they’re tied to them by heavy rope!
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.
To be clear, I’m not talking about cavalier risk here.
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.
Don’t forget, of course, that Batman himself is a parable.
He’s unlike pretty much all other super heroes in so far as he does not have any super powers.
Batman 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. Most importantly, Batman had the Will to Act.
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.
