Lessons From The Prison Break

The prison break film is a story of how a successful civil engineer- Michael, deliberately sets himself up to go to jail in order to set his innocent brother who is on death roll free. It is a film that unveils intense preparation, planning, the calculated risk taking, relationship management, sacrifice, negotiating e.t.c. In this film Michael tattoos himself with a cleverly concealed plan of the prison and contingency plans in the case of possible foul ups.

1. Fear is monster made up of invisible molecules. It’s strong and alive for as long as it remains unconfronted!

“There was a scene in which the nurse asks the lead actor Michael if he had no fears about his being in prison. This was after two of his toes had been chopped off by one of the other inmates. He responds by sharing the story of what happened in his childhood, how he found it difficult to sleep at night because he thought that there was a monster in the cupboard. Back then, his brother told him that fear is made up of invisible molecules, that when you ventured to open the cupboard, the monster will disappear. From then he had learnt to confront his monsters - even when behind each door were 1000 other doors”

Fear unconfronted grows. There is nothing to fear. What are you fears? Another human being? No matter how big, rich or fierce the human being is, he/she is still human. When he/she wants to take a shower, he/she must take off his/her clothes. There is nothing to fear in any mortal? Are you afraid of tomorrow? Open the closet, there is nothing there. I remember a day I wanted to hire a taxi at a taxi park. The clowns there were charging exceptionally high, I told them it was much cheaper off the streets but the guy in charge started a story about the safety of picking up their taxi and the risk involved in just a taxi off the street. I looked him in the eye and told him to scrap that line, I asked him to look at me carefully and be sure that it doesn’t matter where I picked the taxi from, it’s risky to carry me, I am the one to fear, any driver should be more concerned about his own safety than mine… he laughed heartily and agreed to carry me at my price Why should you be the one that is afraid rather than the one that is feared? Fear is the greatest inhibitor of the human race. What are you waiting for?

2. Things are not always as they seem.

“This was a phrase used when Michael scorned his elder brother just before he was convicted, that what had he done with is life. According to him, their mother had left them some money from her life insurance, he had used his to go to school and better his life, while his brother-Lincoln had spent his recklessly and had neither an education nor a life. Lincoln responded by saying “things are not always as they seem”. It turned out, that their mother had left no life insurance. What had actually happened was that Lincoln had borrowed $90,000 for his brother to go through the best of schools, he knew that if he had told him, he would not have accepted it, so he had framed it as their mum’s life insurance.”

The human mind has a habit of jumping into conclusions and making assumptions. Don’t make assumptions about peoples guilt until it is proven, things are not always as they appear. Never judge a book by it’s cover, don’t only look, observe and behold. Be slow to jump into conclusions and quick to forgive. A closer look will reveal more, things are not always as they seem.

3. Impossible is nothing!

“When Lincoln and his bother saw for the first time in the prison, Michael told him, “I’m gonna get you out of here, the brother responded and said, “That’s impossible”! Michael went on to tell him that it was not impossible if you were responsible for designing the prison. He had not only seen the master plan, he had it tattooed on his body and had spent quality time understanding both that map and everyone in the prison that was going to be critical to the prison break. Things are only impossible for as long as we do not allow our minds to stretch to accommodate possibilities.”

To a person whose mind is set on the end, who confidently moves in the direction of his/her dreams. Nothing is impossible! Where there is a will, there is always a way. The world was not created with a road network, men built roads. There was and is still no master plan for the development of roads, man simply made a way to wherever he wanted to go. There is no such thing as there is no way, there is just no way yet. Create one!

4. Sooner or later, everybody has a need!

“It was interesting to see how the team that will carry out the prison break was formed. These were people who would not work together by any means. But each forged together by their individual and selfish needs became an exceptional team. One wanted to see his girlfriend desperately, another’s children were about to be killed, one’s daughter had cancer, another’s family didn’t even know he was in jail, one stumbled on the opportunity e.t.c.”

You can get anybody enrolled on your team if you understand their needs, and make the goal relevant to them. Sooner or later everybody has a need. People are not sympathetic to corporate visions that have nothing in it for them. Like our popular phrase where I once worked - “What binds us together is our mutual quest for success.”

5. The leader is the one who has thought about it longest.

“You’ll wonder how Michael would be the leader of this prison break team. He looks most fragile, he’s not the strongest,not the wildest, not the hardest, but he is incontestably the leader of the pack. He calls the shots and everyone else asks him for the next step. He put the team together, and more often than not, his say his final. If he says let’s jump, the group has more confident in it than the ravings of any of the team members. Why? Because he had demonstrated clearly that he had been thinking about this exercise and has it all figured out.”

The role of a leader is clear, and every one of the 5 E’s that characterize a leader where clearly displayed. He Envisioned the future, spent quality time meditating on it. He Energized his team, he connected with a selfish need in every one. He Enabled his team, he gave them access to all the tools they needed to achieve the vision. He Engaged the team, he formed relationships with each one of them at a level that ensured that the work would be done. He modeled executional excellence, he didn’t give orders, he did what had to be done.

6. Every experience is useful!

“Michael had a bad accident and wound, in which a critical part of the map on his back was erased. He tried hard to remember the content of that portion but was unsuccessful. He quickly remembered a lunatic that had been transfered to his cell for a few weeks, who had been able to draw the entire map in an attempt to decipher if it was a partway to hell. Back then he tried desperately to get the guy out of his room, but all of a sudden, he became valuable. His ability to remember the missing piece became critical to the prison break”

Have you ever had an experience that you desperately tried to get out of? Has it ever come back to be useful to you? Every experience is valuable, everything counts, all things work together for good. Not for everybody, but for everyone whose eyes are set on a purpose, for those who have a higher meaning to their existence. For those who live for a course, who are on a mission. Every experience is useful.

7. When you come to the end of your plan, keep running

“I Finished the film eventually, but I’ll leave out the juicy details for those who want to watch it. When all the plans finished, the next action was run! Just make a run for it!”

I remember an article I posted about 6 months ago titled “Aiduro Nijo” - The dance is in not stopping! As soon as you keep moving then you are dancing, dancing stops when movement stops. The reason why you don’t know the people you don’t know is because they stopped doing whatever it was that was going to get them to their goals. I hear that a fanatic is someone who doubles speed when direction is lost, haven’t you also heard that only the paranoid survive?

Life is funny, I once read an analysis that back in the days of the early men, there were two types of people, the impulsive and the analytical. The impulsive man hears a rumble in the forest and runs, the analytical man hears the rumble and tries to find out if it is a squirrel or a lion. The analytical man gets eaten if it is a lion, and gradually the analytical man dies, while the earth is filled with impulsive men. Now the impulsive man needs to analyze deliberately, but run impulsively. Whatever you have set your hands on, run with it! Many people quit their dreams because of temporary set backs and go back to their vomit, they stopped to analyze and went back to status quo. When you reach the end of the plan, keep running, it gives you the opportunity of featuring in season 2!

Hope I haven’t bored ?
curled from Deolu akinyemi.com