Have you ever seen a monkey peel a banana? I had never considered the idea until a few months ago when a colleague of mine demonstrated a YouTube video he had recently seen. According to the video, monkeys peel bananas from the bottom and not from the stem. Obviously, this is very different from how most people peel bananas.
Is this true I asked myself? I started by watching the video which currently has over 3 million views. The video did not contain an actual monkey but rather a man explaining how monkeys peel bananas. I looked for other videos and only found one of a monkey peeling a banana this way. I did notice several different ways in which a monkey may peel a banana. I looked for written evidence and found blogs that supported this fact. None contained empirical evidence to support their claim. I searched for written journal articles and found nothing.
Lacking clear evidence, I had to make a choice whether I believed monkeys peel bananas differently than humans. Since I didn’t find one resource to refute the claim and have seen videos of monkeys using various methods, I chose to believe it is more than likely monkeys peel bananas differently than humans.
So what is the point you ask? I have always accepted the fact that monkeys love eating bananas. I would be willing to bet you believe that as well. I also choose to believe that monkeys are experts at eating bananas since they probably eat more than I do in a year. Therefore, if monkeys are expert banana eaters, I was surprised to learn I was peeling bananas different than the expert. Based on this, I asked myself whether I should begin peeling bananas from the bottom.
If so, this would mark a major behavioral change in my life. I guess in some way, I too would become an expert at peeling a banana if I decided to peel it like an expert. After all, don’t we want to do things like the experts? Not always!
If the ‘rich keep getting richer’ while the ‘poor keep getting poorer’, which should we strive to be like? I would expect the rich person to be more of an expert at managing his/her finances. So, if I am struggling at managing my money, it would only make sense to begin doing what the expert is doing. Fortunately, Ms. Thrift and I made that decision several years ago. We are so thankful we did and work hard each day to become more of an expert money manager.
Not everyone in society manages their money like experts. This explains why the ‘poor keep getting poorer’. If you are in that situation, don’t hate the wealthy. Try and learn from them. Perhaps now is the time to find your monkey whoever he or she is and begin to model your financial life like theirs. Find out how they peel their banana and do the same!
