Mind Mastery

A cruise ship crashed into another cruise ship near a deserted island.

The people from both ships scrambled to get onto the life rafts, taking everything of value with them.

1,000 survivors made it to shore.

Sam knew that they had no idea how long it would be until rescue came to find them.

The most important tool he was able to salvage from the ship was a megaphone.

Sam knew that if they were going to survive and not descend into chaos, or even worse, government, they would need some organisation.

Once everyone was on the island and looking around to figure out what to do, Sam stepped up with his megaphone and started speaking.

“Hi everyone, I’m Sam. I’m only asking for 5 minutes of your time to hear me out.

We are in a tough situation right now, we lost some good people, I know many of you are sad and scared right now. But if we are going to pull through this, we need to work together and we need a plan. I have some suggestions to make and it’s up to all of you what we do by way of vote.”

Sam paused and looked around at the big crowd of people that were listening to him.

He was nervous to speak to so many people, but he knew what had to be done.

“I have an outline of a plan we can work through together, but first I’d like your permission to share what I have to say.”

Many people looked a little bit confused that the man with a megaphone was asking for permission to continue.

“Let’s have a vote right now, everyone who would like me to continue speaking for a few more minutes, please raise your hand.”

Most of the crowd raised their hands.

“Those who would like me to shut the hell up and start swimming that way, please raise your hands.”

A few raised their hands, but they were wearing cheeky smiles.

“Ok, so I believe that if the majority of people would like me to continue then I shall. That’s democracy, right?”

People nodded in agreement.

“Ok, here’s my plan. We need shelter, we need food and we need fresh drinking water. These are the priorities.”

He could see from many peoples faces that they also thought this.

“But before we can get started on any of those things, we need to do an inventory to see what we have, as that’s going to affect the kind of shelters we can build and food we can collect.”

Someone raised a shovel and another an axe in approval.

“So step 1, we need to do an inventory.

Step 2 is to break into groups of specific skills and knowledge and discuss amongst yourselves your ideas.

Step 3 is to get volunteers for each task.

Step 4 is action time.”

A middle aged woman clapped for a moment before stopping quickly, realising he wasn’t finished.

“The people who have skills, experience or ideas on how we can build shelter for everyone can form a group here.”

Sam he waved his hand to the left.

“The people who have skills, experience or ideas on how to collect food can form a group here.”

Sam waved his hand in the middle.

“The people who have skills, experience or ideas on how we can get fresh water can form a group here.”

Sam waved his hand to the right.

“If you feel you have a really high level of skills, knowledge and experience in all 3 of those categories, form a group at the front here.”

Sam could see a few men who were staring at him intently start to move to the front and he could feel their survival instincts telling him they were made for this.

“Everyone else can form a group at the back and discuss other ideas about what is important to be doing right now that I may have missed.”

Sam pointed to the back.

“We can form into these groups, take 20-30 minutes to discuss ideas, then another 10 or so for discussion between the different groups. Each group can then vote to choose 2 people from amongst them to present their ideas to the rest of us.

We will have 5 groups, 1 for food, 1 for water, 1 for shelter, 1 for all 3 of those and 1 for everything else.

If at any time in the future you don't like the way the representative from your group is performing, you can call for a re-vote, no hard feelings.

The 2 representatives from each group will take the megaphone.

They will share their ideas and we will take a vote to see if we are comfortable proceeding with the course of action they suggest.

We will have shelter first, then water, then food, then the triple experts will add anything else they need to, then the last group to remind us of any other important points.

Once we have voted and agreed upon our plan of action, we'll then request volunteers for each mission and crack into action.”

A few people standing together near the back looked very unhappy about the way things were going.

“If you do not wish to participate, that’s ok, no one will force you to do anything against your will.

We don’t want to turn into savages, so let others do as they please if they wish to work independently and the rest of us can aim to work together as peacefully and respectfully as possible.”

The unhappy small group turned to each other and started whispering something, then looked back towards Sam.

“The better we work together, the more likely we can all have shelter, plenty of food and water. If we have the basics of what we need, it’s a lot less likely we’ll run into problems.

Of course we still will run into problems and disputes, so I'll share my solution for that later tonight if you will allow me.”

He bowed his head slightly out of respect.

“For now, I volunteer to be our organiser and planner.

Before we take a vote on whether we proceed with my plan or not, I’d like to ask if there is anyone else who would like to be doing what I am doing right now? I think it’s best to check in and see if anyone feels they can do a better job than I am.”

Sam looked at the survivors.

“Any takers?”

A man in a suit and big moustache at the front raised his hand.

“Yes, I would like my chance to speak.”

“Ok, sure thing, come up to the front and share your piece mister”

The suited man took the megaphone off Sam impolitely.

“My name is Gregory Sardonkle. I’m the mayor of Harrietville and have experience in situations like this.”

Gregory paused and brushed some wrinkles out of his suit before continuing.

“It is more important before we start building shelters or collecting food that we establish a proper chain of command.”

He raised his chin and pouted his lips as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Since I have the most experience and actually am an authority figure, being the mayor of harrietville, it is most wise that I be the one in charge. To ensure proper order, I will need a team of police to make sure everyone is doing what they are meant to be doing. I have plenty of gold back home to pay you handsomely with. Who here would like to be richly rewarded once we are rescued and return to the mainland?”

Two burly and scruffy looking thugs approached Gregory.

“Excellent, excellent, anyone else?”

“Get out of here ya bleeding lunatic, give Sam back the megaphone”! Yelled an old codger.

Many others joined in with jeers and cries for Gregory to leave their sight.

Sam said to Gregory, “Ok I think I’ll take that back before you get lynched” as he grabbed the megaphone.

The two burly thugs moved towards Sam but a throng of a dozen men stood in between them with menacing looks on their faces. Many of them were the survival experts Sam had identified earlier.

Sam had to act quickly before violence erupted.

“Alright settle down everyone, it’s good to see that I’m surrounded by so many good characters. Don’t be too hard on these guys here” he said as he pointed towards the thugs and Gregory, “they are just afraid and out of their comfort zones, given enough time and compassion, they will come around.”

The crowds tension started to ease and the thugs backed down.

“I think it’s still best we vote for an organiser, is there anyone else who would like this role?”

No one raised their hands.

An old lady stepped forward and asked, “Why do you want to be the leader Sam?”

“For those who couldn't hear that, this lady, what’s you name ma'am?”

“Margaret”

“Margaret just asked me why I want to be the leader. No one is good at everything, but everyone is good at something. I don’t want to be the leader, too much responsibility, too much duty and not enough freedom.”

Sam shook his head briefly as he shared this.

“I’m only volunteering temporarily to be the organiser and coordinator. Also to make sure Gregory here doesn’t kill us all before we’ve had time to starve to death.”

The crowd laughed.

Sam smiled at Margaret.

“Does that answer your question?”

“Yes perfectly, thank you, carry on!”

Sam laughed.

“All in favour of Gregory?”

No one raised their hands, not even the two thugs.

“All those in favour of I?”

Close to 90% of the crowd raised their hands.

“Thank you for your support. I want to make it very clear. I am not the boss and I don't want to be. I’ll simply be the coordinator and organiser until you vote someone else to replace me, we think of a better idea or we get rescued.”

A few people wolf whistled and others clapped.

“All those in favour of proceeding with our four step plan?”

Everyone raised their hands.

“Any questions, queries or doubtful points before we begin”?

A young girl raised her hand.

“Where’s the toilet”?

Sam chuckled.

“We haven’t built one of those yet, so anywhere off in the woods that way, mum and dad, please accompany her, we're uncertain of the wildlife here.”

Sam pointed into the woods, made a quick glance at the thugs before nodding to her parents and addressing his new team.

“Ok team, you know what to do”!