The Power of Three

"Let's push the train!" a man hollered to the crowd waiting for the subway. He places both hands bravely onto the stalled cart composing the subway train. For a moment there is silence as vital seconds pass by until the train restarts and the man stuck between the rails and the platform is no more. More silence between the people in the crowd. The man looks around and shouts words of encouragement, "We can do this. We can move this train and free the stuck man. But with only me? -- there's no chance that he'll survive. We are his only hope. We can do this!!" The man lays unconscious, unaware of the dilemma that is happening around him concerning his life. If the people try and shift the train to the other side, he lives. Even if the sole man shouting pushes with all his might, he dies, crumbled underneath the thick tires of the subway train. After what seems like an eternity, a young man pushes through the crowd and places his hands on the train. "I'm in!" he declares as he looks expectantly into the crowd. The once silent crowd start whispering and discussing, the fate of the unconscious man resting in each and every one of their hands. People are looking at one another, each waiting for another to make the first move. A young woman finally places her small hands ready and prepared to move the train. All of a sudden, the crowd rushes. Each person reaches to touch the train as the man who first initiated the effort looks relieved. He quickly composes himself and organizes the pushing into a systemic effort. (P.S = the train/cart is empty) After a couple of systematical pushes by the crowd, the subway train tips in the opposite direction and the unconscious man is quickly rescued with only minor lacerations. The crowd cheers as they look unbelieving at the tipped cart. They have done the unthinkable, they have moved the train that weighs tons with their bare hands. How? -- Well it's all in the power of three.

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I saw a documentary about a month ago explaining the physiological aspect of the human mind about people becoming victims of their situational environment or "overcoming" their environment. It was really eerie how people can be so easily affected by what others do and think around them even in a life-or-death situation. For example, a subway in Korea exploded and many people died and were injured, but the people who trusted their instincts and escaped the cart lived. 10 minutes before the subway exploded, the subway conductor/driver announced that the subway would take a short break and resume 10 minutes later. So the people in the subway believed the man and patiently waited for their ride to resume. Who wouldn't right? But here's the catch, smoke started to seep inside the cart where the people were waiting. As the minutes ticked by, more smoke poured into the cart ..... yet no one did anything. Most of the people just sat there quietly coughing. No one moved even though something was apparently wrong..... Everyone was waiting for someone to do something, watchful of what others were going to do yet scared to be the catalyst or being judged. These people assumed that since no one was taking action that nothing was wrong, even though the smoke was the only evidence that they needed to known that something was in fact very wrong. The few people who did escape, did so by opening the subway doors themselves and in doing so avoided death. Yet as these few people climbed out, most of the people just sat there, coughing ...... little did they know that they would all die soon. The choice to wait for others to take action cost their lives. Each person in the subway waited for another person to stand up and take charge. Well, if person A is waiting for person B to act and person B is waiting for person A to act .... nothing gets done and nothing happens. If one person had taken action and spoken out and said that something was wrong and that everyone should escape, all the people would still be living now. Yet no one had the courage to speak out because they were afraid of getting judged by other people. After hearing this story, I realized how hard being a leader really was. The ability to stand up, speak out and tell everyone that something is wrong is actually pretty hard. People think that since no one else is speaking out against something that everything is okay. The people in the subway doubted their instincts to get out of the subway because they watched what the people around them did. They blindly believed the conductor's statement that they would leave in 10 minutes and assumed that nothing would happen and everything would be all right. This example also provides insight to how the Holocaust and other notorious atrocities occurred throughout history. Everyone was waiting for another person to speak out and as a result, no one spoke out. The people in the subway lacked a leader. They needed a person to become the spark and tell them that their instincts were correct. There was no such person on the subway... Almost everyone died ... Had one person spoken out and taken action and two other people joined, their cause to escape would have become a movement. Who knows if one person spoke out but was rejected by the others? If that one person doesn't have support of at least two other people, the cause fails. The subway train example from the way top of this post explains this. Because three people agreed to try to move the train, the crowd joined in. If no one had responded to the one man's calling... the man who was stuck would have probably perished. If you have one person in a cause, people view it as being a one-man cause. If you have two people in a cause, it's just a group. Yet if you have three people, it becomes a movement that is worthwhile to fight for.

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The documentary also showed other examples and stimulated the subway smoke incident in classroom. When one person was in a room, however, they quickly ran out of the room when they discovered that smoke was slowly filling up the room. The physiologists noted that this was because they didn't watch and wait for others to take action.. because there was no other person. This revelation was chilling because it portrayed how much we watch other people's reaction and wait to see their solution, so as to not feel stupid when the incident is in fact nothing. But in cases where the incident (such as smoke filtering into the room) is a situation of life and death, people still wait and see what others around them are doing. Even though the warning sighs eminently show something is wrong, we sometimes choose to ignore our instincts to just fit it. This is where leaders are important.... STAND OUT. SPEAK OUT. BE THE LEADER. And remember:

"I wondered why somebody didn't do something. Then I realized : I AM SOMEBODY. "
--anonymous

[[ Just an opinion: The phrase one person can change the world is in a way true, but in a way false. True = one person's idea can change the world. False = one person without the support of other people can make a difference.]]

Will you be the leader? or the follower? If you are the follower who will the lead the others?