The Unlocked Leader

CHAPTER 1When the Keys to Past Success Get in Your Way: How Mindsets Become Mindtraps

Once upon a time, there was a child who lived by the sea. He spent time sitting on a rock, drawing circles in the sand with a stick. Each day, the tide would cover the circles, and each day, the child would draw the same circles.

“Hello, my friend!” the child hears one day.

The child looks around, but no one else is there.

“Down here!” the voice says.

The child sees an oyster clinging to a rock.

“Are you an oyster like me?” the oyster asks.

“Can't you see I'm a human?”

“You don't feel like a human,” the oyster says. “All humans are gifted beyond measure. They can move mountains and travel the sea. They can dream and make the impossible possible. Do you ever dream of what lies beyond these shores?”

The child has never thought about it.

“Then your gift is locked inside your shell, just like my pearl.”

Humans can make the impossible possible? The thought makes the child's heart sing. “How do I unlock my human gift?” the child asks the oyster.

“I don't know,” the oyster says. “I'm not human.”

They are both silent for a moment. A fisherman walks by. Here is a human who's traveled to other shores, the child thinks. Perhaps he can help.

“Do you know how I can unlock my human gift?” the child asks the fisherman after greeting him.

“Look for the path of roses,” the fisherman says.

The child has heard of that path of roses. People in the village talk about it sometimes. “How do I find it?”

“That's ...