Don’t Be A Crab

Good morning, team. Alright, Monday. Monday Message. Always about our core values; that’s our focus. I wanted to talk a little bit about humility today.

I was reading earlier this week and thinking through this concept. And I was reminded of how crabs operate. If you’ve ever been out crabbing on the coast and you catch some crabs, if you put a crab in a barrel, in a cage, if you put one in, it’ll climb out. So, you always have to apply a lid to cover it up. But if you have a few crabs in there, then you don’t have to worry about putting a lid on because the crabs take care of themselves. As one’s trying to climb out, the others will always pull him back down, will always keep him back down.

If you want to be great in this world, you have to be able to shrug off the mentality of those around you always trying to drag you down or keep you from achieving.

I know that we’ve all felt that way from time to time. You might be thinking to yourself, “Chad, where are you going with our core values on this?” Well, humility. Because one of our pieces of humility, and the way I describe humility is to hold the ladder and the light.

A humble person is okay with holding the ladder while somebody else is climbing up and up and up and getting out and away and moving forward. We’re okay with that, we’re not jealous. We’re not trying to keep somebody down. And we’re not trying to grab their foot and keep them from getting somewhere.

We are very excited about the growth of another team member; that is humility.

Same thing with shining light. We shine the light on somebody. “Hey, look at Bob; he’s really doing a great job. Hey, Laverne, it’s your turn.” You guys are Chad’s a poet. Yes, I’m a poet and a songwriter. If you haven’t read my Pre-K marching song, you should definitely take a look at that. Anyway, I went to Nashville and thought myself to be a songwriter, so I wrote a song; who would think it? Anyway, back to the crabs.

Don’t be a crab. We’ve all felt like that.

I think you’ve worked on a team or been around people, maybe at school, something along those lines where you felt like you were starting to excel, maybe you were starting to climb, and somebody grabbed your ankle and yanked you back down and said, “Where do you think you’re going?”

That’s not what we want in Northwest Enforcement. It’s not what we want to do. We want to hold your ladder; we want to let you climb. We want to celebrate your climb; we want to celebrate your success and your movement forward and your growth. That’s what we want to do, and that’s what humble people do.

It’s how we recognize humility around here: when somebody else is holding somebody else’s ladder for them, and tomorrow it might be somebody else’s turn to hold your ladder so you can climb too. That’s what’s so beautiful, that’s what’s so exciting. Who’s holding your ladder? Whose ladder are you holding?

We all get a turn; we all get a turn to climb, but we also all get a turn to hold the ladder or the light for somebody else and help somebody else climb and grow and move forward. So, on this beautiful Monday, as we’re marching through, uh, marching through March—no, marching through June—as we’re making it into summer, yay summer, I wanted to say, God bless you and thank you for holding the ladder for somebody else on our team. Thank you for holding my ladder in times when I needed somebody to help me continue to climb to my next best level.

Thank you for being there, and I enjoy holding your ladder when I get that opportunity. So again, thank you. God bless, and I’ll see you guys next week. Bye-bye.