7 Habits of an eagle

Question: Can you find the common relationship between all the pictures?
Answer: Well all of them have an eagle.
Wasn't that too obvious... well if that would have been the correct answer. The correct answer lies in people these symbols represented. The first logo belonged to Napolean, the second to Julias Ceasar, the third to Hitler, and the last is too obvious to be mentioned.

So why did these people choose eagle to represent themselves out of all the animals in the animal kingdom. Why such unfair treatment of all the others. The answer lies in the fact that eagle is treated as a symbol of leadership. All these people represented the epitomes of power and leadership.

If you look at an eagle from a business perspective you can learn a quite a lot. And it actually forces you to think that Eagles can do the amazing feats cant we as humans strive to achieve those. Research on Eagles brings to light the following points

• Eagles fly alone at high altitudes
• Eagles have strong vision
• Eagles hunt.
  
• Eagles love storm
• Eagles test before they trust
• Eagles are good mentors
• Old eagles pluck out their own feathers
  

Well, wondering, how these weird looking propositions fit into a business environment. If we look at them closely we find a good degree of correlation between the two. Let us go point by point and try figuring out the correlation.

• Eagles fly at high altitudes and they fly alone. It is similar to a business situation which calls for setting high standards even if there is no one near to those standards.
  
  
• Eagles generally spot their preys from a very large distance (5kms). They keep themselves focused irrespective of whatever may come in between. Be it an aero plane, a bomb blast or a forest fire. Once the eyes are set on the prey, the probability of the prey being left is very less. Similarly focus on the business and having a clear vision as to what we want to do is a necessary mantra for success.
  
  
• Eagles never eat dead food, they don't know whether or not they will get the next meal in case they leave the dead animal, they take a risk, a huge risk. But in the end they are way ahead of the vultures who survive on the dead. They get quality food and have good standards for themselves.
  
  
• An eagle ventures into a storm and the strong air currents take the bird to soar higher and higher to highest levels of the atmosphere. Basically a wonderful experience at no cost. A crisis in ones life must also be like the storm that takes the eagle to the next level. They must act like the crucibles of leadership.
  
  
• The female eagle before mating with the male actually tests the male. The female picks a thorn from a shrub and flies above, holding it in its beak. As soon as it reaches around 5km above from the surface of the earth, it drops the thorn. The male who is supposed to follow the female in order to keep track of the dropping point of the thorn, now has the task of catching the falling thorn before it touches the ground. Once he does so successfully he is tested again and again with the thorn being dropped from higher altitudes. If successful, the female allows for the mating. So we must not blame someone else when we are ditched by them. It is our mistake that we did not test them properly before trusting them.
  
  
• A close look at the nest of the eagle reveals that the nest is made up of 7 layers.
  
• 1st layer -----Twigs
• 2nd layer----- thorns
• 3rd layer----- Rags
• 4th layer-----Dry Leaves
• 5th layer-----Twigs
• 6th layer-----Thorns
• 7th layer-----Cotton
  
  The division of responsibility is quite clear after the mating is over. The male has the responsibility of arranging for food to feed the female eagle and the eaglets. Once the children are mature enough and develop wings, the female eagle pushes the children off the cliff in order to teach them how to fly. The child is very afraid and screams and shouts, makes all types of noises possible under the sun. But to no avail. He tries to get back to the nest but the parents are clever still, they remove the cotton layer of the nest. Now the nest has only thorns. So the eaglet now has to choose between the devil and the deep sea. He finds it better to jump rather than getting back in the nest and making himself bleed. The eaglet just keeps on falling down and down and just before the point when he is about to touch the ground the father actually catches the falling eaglet on its back and takes it atop. An eaglet on an average learns to fly in 2 hours. The way people are mentored makes a lot of difference in their lives

• Old eagles pluck their own feathers, remain without eating and after some time they grow new feathers, some of those old eagles who have the power to fly go again and grace the sky but others die a graceful death. The lesson to be learned here is there are some of our habits that need this plucking exercise. Sooner the better ....