The Parable of the Mango Tree
In Mangoland, where mangos were the currency of trade, a bushel of the golden beauties was equivalent to $1 million in our money. Johnny, an up-and-coming Mangoland executive, was desperate to use his skills and experience to acquire mangos - to consume and to hoard. The orchards were owned by Mangotycoons, Mangolords and Mangopreneurs. One night, as he dreamed of mangos, he had a vision. He did not realize that this vision was about to change his life.
A white-bearded man with a halo, asked in a soft echoing voice, “Do you want mangos?”
“Oh yes!” Johnny replied.
“Come,” said the man, transporting Johnny miraculously to a magnificent mango orchard.
“Wow!” Johnny gasped, taking in the endless acres of luscious fruits, hanging within reach.
“Start your journey by caring for this tree,” said the man, pointing to a sapling that bore the fruits of Johnny’s desires, “With your skills and commitment, it will grow to give you many delicious mangos. Then, you may be called upon to serve other trees that too will share their fruits with you.” With these words, the man disappeared as mysteriously as he had arrived.
Alone in the orchard, Johnny was trapped between commitment to care for the tree and his uncontrollable desire for mangos. Casting commitment and honor aside, he set upon harvesting the orchard, keeping a wary eye for the man. The man never appeared, and Johnny continued to build a heap of mangos large enough to lay on. Soon, exhausted and hungry, he started to devour the fruits of his labor. He ate and he ate, until he fell asleep. Even in his dreams, he was devouring mangos, crouching and hoping he was not being watched.
When he awoke, Johnny did not know how long he had slept. Reaching out for another mango, he shrieked in horror. The heap on which he lay had become a rotting, stinking, bug-infested mess, and there was no tree in site.
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How does this parable shed light on Corporate Greed? Can you compare Johnny with executives who have ruined their firms by unethical practices - driven by taking rather than serving and giving. How does this story relate to life?
The Parable of the Mango Tree is an excerpt from “The Mango Tree,” a short story on purposeful action for children, by Prem Chopra, Brook of Life Press, Copyright 2009 by Prem Chopra, all rights reserved.
Johnny seems to have had good intentions to begin with. He was willing to work hard to get what he desired, but he was not able to exercise enough patience to get to where he needed to be. The potential of profit was right in front of him, but the means of acquiring it were not honest means. He chose to take the shortcut rather than to continue his hard work and wait for the benefit that would be due to him in the end. This happens often in the corporate world. Hard work and ethical decisions would pay off in the long run if executives could show the patience to acquire wealth in an honest fashion. Unfortunately, if a shortcut presents itself, it is difficult to pass that opportunity up. This usually leads to short lived success, followed by crashing and burning, so to speak. If patience could have been shown, the success may have been prolonged.
Cade I think you have brought up a good point. Are Unethical Executives born or are they a product of their environment. The pressure to succeed is great, and the pressures exerted on the CEO’s by the Board of Directors and the Shareholders is more profitability now. Our culture is driven by greed and when someone fixes the books to look more profitable, they always say, I will fix it next quarter so noone is hurt. Next quarter the pressure is greater to mathc the last quarters productivity and things start to snowball a little. Pretty soon everyone is getting hurt, by something that started out “innocently.”
That’s what happens when you are a taker instead of a taker. If Johnny would’ve learned how to care for the mangos he would have been a lot better off, but instead he let his greed get the best of him. The same goes for corporate greed or anything for that matter. Anytime you become more of a taker than a giver, you run into huge problems.
The man was so blinded by the prospect of taking in profits that he never bothered to give any attention to the health of the orchard. If he would have remained calm and devoted himself to caring for the orchard and sustaining profits by maintaining the source instead of blindly hoarding revenue, he would have experienced the same happiness that he initially felt for a lifetime.
This is often the CEO’s downfall; doing what it takes to receive a quick score instead of positioning the corporation to flourish for the long-term.
This parable shows how corporate greed can consume the company. A company should focus on caring for the future of the company at all costs, instead of plucking the tree bare. One company to immediately comes to mind is Enron and how corporate greed at the highest levels cause one of the most promising companies in the US to complete failure. The top executives at Enron were more concerned with filling their bank accounts while they can instead of worrying about the future welfare of the company. The Enron executives were not concerned with where the company would be in 20 years, they were looking to get all they could while the getting was good. This corporate greed cause the downfall of Johnny and of Enron.
I agree with you. The lack of patience and the desire for “instant gratification” is the problem with Johnny as well as Enron.
Greed is the underlying factor in this parable. The parable shows that a greedy person whoo is only out for his or her self will end up with nothing. There are many examples, Jim Bakker the Evangelist, convinced his followers to send him money built an empire, In the end he was sent to prison for cheating them out of their money. Enron, the company was built on false profit statements, employees were convinced to invest their retirement into the company, when the company went under people lost their life savings. And management went to prison, or died. Greed is negative, and a greedy person or entity will soon fall.
It shows us that in a money driven culture, or in this case, a mango driven one, some people will take everything they are immediately offered without a glance at the costs or benefits. There are many today who would rather take now and not worry about the future, but the truth is that sooner or later the future becomes today. I think this also shows the difference between giving a man a fish and teaching him to fish. If the old man had waited around and taught Johnny to care for the mangos, perhaps Johnny would have been mango-millionaire. There are those who are unwilling to take the time to listen, but most will at least bend a sympathetic ear to someone offering guidance.