logged
No… DO be a crab in a bucket
Turns out the whole “crab in a bucket” thing is completely unfair.
You’ve probably heard the story before…
One crab tries to climb out, the others pull it back down. And the moral is always something like… “People don’t want to see you succeed.”
But that story falls apart the moment you look a little closer.
Because crabs didn’t evolve for buckets.
They’re a human invention.
Crabs don’t encounter smooth vertical walls, confined air, mass capture, or artificial scarcity in nature. So what people interpret as envy, sabotage, or spite is really just panic, disorientation, and frantic escape behavior in an unfamiliar, artificial environment.
They’re not dragging each other down because they want them to fail…
They’re reacting to a situation that shouldn’t exist.
And once you see that, it’s hard not see the parallel. Because I can think of a few other things that shouldn’t exist either.
Like waking up Monday morning to give away all your time to a job you hate, for pay that doesn’t match your effort, with people you can’t be honest around, while your best ideas slowly rot away inside your head.
That’s an artificial environment too.
And when people are trapped in systems like that, they don’t become generous, creative, or collaborative.
They get stressed, defensive, and reactive.
Not because they’re bad people, but because the environment is wrong.
I’ve believed for a long time that people do their best work when they feel securely supported. And that creativity, contribution, and generosity are the default human settings when survival pressure isn't crushing everything else.
Which is part of why I became self-employed as soon as I could.
Also why I eventually walked away from a business that paid well but quietly drained the life out of me.
And if you’re a coach, thought leader, educator, or experience-based professional…
I’m guessing traditional jobs aren’t your natural habitat either.
Not because we’re “special”…
But because the work we do requires thinking, experimenting, teaching, synthesizing, and helping other people make sense of things.
The kind of work that doesn’t thrive in buckets. The kind of work that thrives in environments where thoughts can move and ideas can breathe.
Where feedback is real.
And the right kind of people can find each other. That’s the entire point of the Client Discovery Lab.
To help you design an environment where your ideas get in front of the right people. Your content attracts buyers, not just attention. And your offers evolve based on real world feedback (instead of just guessing in isolation).
If that sounds like something you want to be part of, you can join the waitlist here:
Everyone who applies will get something useful, even if you don’t end up joining the cohort.
No buckets required.
Your pal,
Kevin Hood