[Why mother giraffe kicks her new born is a part of the series of business lessons articles I will write down from the WildTrails India editorial concentrating on what business lessons we can learn from our wild animals who have mastered the art of survival, tackling competition, focus attack, marking/restricting territory, selecting their prey etc. These guys have mastered this art for 1000s of years and there is a lot to learn from them be it a startup or be it a marketing or a sales manager or be it a CEO or management folks or even development or a QA head or even contributor – there is a lesson for all of us.]

Why Mother Giraffe Kicks Their newborn?

The birth of a baby giraffe is quite an earth-shaking event. The baby falls from its mother’s womb, some eight feet above the ground. It shrivels up and lies still, too weak to move.

The mother giraffe lovingly lowers her neck to smooch the baby giraffe. And then something incredible happens. She lifts her long leg and kicks the baby giraffe, sending it flying up in the air and tumbling down on the ground. As the baby lies curled up, the mother kicks the baby again. And again. Until the baby giraffe, still trembling and tired, pushes its limbs and for the first time learns to stand on its feet.

Happy to see the baby standing on its own feet, the mother giraffe comes over and gives it yet another kick. The baby giraffe falls one more time, but now quickly recovers and stands up. Mama Giraffe is delighted.

She knows that her baby has learnt an important lesson: Never mind how hard you fall, always remember to pick yourself up and get back on your feet.

Why does the mother giraffe do this? She knows that lions and leopards love giraffe meat. So unless the baby giraffe quickly learns to stand and run with the pack – it will have no chance of survival. 

THE BUSINESS LESSON TO LEARN:

Never mind how hard you fall, always remember to pick yourself up and get back on your feet.

Most of us though are not quite as lucky as baby giraffes. No one teaches us to stand up every time we fall. When we fail, when we are down, we just give up. No one kicks us out of our comfort zone to remind us that to survive and succeed, we need to learn to get back on our feet.

This is a very critical lesson for us especially for those in Startups – where we fall often & worse we never get out of comfort zones, we fail to get up, only to fall prey for the lions and the hyenas of the market forces.

We should remember that just because we created a great product, we should never sit idle assuming customers will rush to our door steps – remember the famous adage – “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door ” – it will never happen. Get kicked, get out, burn your sole and market & sell your product,

Whenever we are into our comfort zone and/or when we are down and out, remember the “Mother giraffe kick’!!

PS: Please be a responsible wildlife tourist; No littering, No sounds, No feeding, no getting down from the safari jeep (when on safari), No phone calls. Remember that we are visiting their home and when we are there, let’s follow their rules.

With 4 years of Sightings data + Extensive expert tracker network in jungles, our customers had the best wildlife experiences.

Shop with WildTrails

1. Book Your Trip

2. Youtube Videos