Best startup mentor award -GoFloaters

Can you guess who this goes to? Wait for it… and the award goes to “Mr Frog”.

Yes, I am talking about the amphibian frog. What inspirational stories do we have from them! If YouTube was popularized by cat videos then I think a fair bit of credit has to be given to frogs for popularizing Facebook and WhatsApp. This article itself was inspired by one WhatsApp forward that I received yesterday.

Be deaf to negativity

This is the story of the frog that got me to write this post.

A frog once told his friends that he is going to climb up to the top of a tree. All of his friend frogs kept telling that this is impossible and he will die trying to do it. This frog never listened, got up on the tree and started climbing up. All his friends below kept on telling that he is stupid and should never attempt doing this. Yet, the frog kept on climbing and finally reached the top. This frog was deaf. He could not hear anything that his friends said but on seeing them shout and wave hands he thought that they were all encouraging him to go higher and higher.

Never give up

Two frogs fell into a vessel full of buttermilk. Both the frogs tried hard to jump out of the vessel but they kept falling back into the buttermilk. One frog gave up too early and drowned in the buttermilk and died. The other frog do not give up. It persevered to the point where the churning that he did caused the buttermilk to turn into butter and the frog climbed out.

Keep trying till you perish

Once upon a time a scientist thought the a frog’s hearing is linked to its legs. To prove this he set out on an experiment. He put a frog on a table and cut one of its leg. Then he asked the frog to jump. The frog jumped. So he cut one more leg of the frog and again asked the frog to jump. The frog jumped this time too. He then cut the third leg of the frog and asked the frog to jump. This time too the frog jumped inspite of the fact that it had lost its three of its legs. The scientist was a little frustrated that he was not able to prove his theory. Finally he cut the fourth leg of the frog and asked it to jump. The frog could not jump this time. The scientist thus concluded that if all the four legs of the frog are cut then the frog loses its hearing.

Don’t get too comfortable with status quo

The last story to talk about the frog that got too comfortable with status quo. Another mad scientist put a frog in a pan of water and started to slowly heat the water. The frog did not jump but was quite comfortable inside the warm water. The temperature of the water kept on increasing to a point where the frog boiled inside the water and it finally died. It was too late for it to jump out. This frog got too comfortable with the warm water not realising that that comfort zone was slowly killing it.

Butterfly vs Frog

I have seen many innovation stories that take the metaphor of a butterfly to signify transformation. I think of a frog’s life as no different from that of a butterfly. The frog too goes through multiple life stages : from an egg to a tadpole and from a tadpole into a frog and living in an amphibious environment. Different species of frogs have different defence and hunting strategies.

Transforming, adapting and taking pivots is what the frog does all its life! A true warrior, a true inspiration and a true mentor indeed! We as entrepreneurs have some of the best lessons to learn from the humble frog.

Who would you give the Best Mentor Award to?