A form of mental torture not appreciated enough is kids forcing moms and dads to watch their favorite shows over and over again. Barbie, Dora, Diego, Tom & Jerry, Ben 10, Cinderella, Superman, Spiderman – you name it. In my case, its my 6 year old and The Avengers. I have even lost the view count. And I don’t even really like it.
But repetition is effective. Redundancy works. Forced slavery leaves its marks. It lets you view things differently and abstractly. Once I resigned myself to my misery, I tried to eek something out of it.
Avengers is a team of superheros brought together to save the world from evil and annihilation. Each had some extraordinary skill – good enough to have a brand of their own. Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow. Avengers, name of their team, battle against the evil of Thor’s brother Loki to save the world. Here are my three lessons from my incarceration:
Teamwork The combined total of everyone in the team is bigger than sum of its parts. Every Avenger is a star of his own. Each singlehandedly has done miracles. Yet when they came together as one team, they net result and what they were able to achieve was phenomenol. Its a great lesson in team work.
Diverse Skills are Important Avengers is not just a collection of superheros but a team with hugely diverse and eclectic skills. Something critically important in achieving great success. Iron Man was a flying machine and tech genius, Hulk had massive power (thats why he could fight the giant flying snake), Hawkeye was a master archer, Captain America had extraordinary strength and fighting prowess, Black Widow was a martial art expert and Thor – well Thor had a hammer (seriously, what?).
Leadership of Super Team is Challenging When such great talent gets together, each a star in his or her own right, conflict is a possibility. Tempers galore and egos pinch. Everyone has been a success in their own different ways. The leadership of a super team is a mighty challenge. It is also something that has the potential for the most reward. Nick Fury, the infinity serum drinking head of spy agency, had a tough job specially when he had to bring the team together after loss of one of their members and ensuing conflict. As Drucker said “The distance between the leaders and the average is a constant. If leadership performance is high, the average will go up.”
So next time you are watching Avengers – or Dora or Tom & Jerry – see if you can at least get something out of your misery.
Thinking Spirits ... 
A universal truth. V must inculcate the same in our national thinking.
That is a very good insight. I am not sure what a movie will really become if we start thinking in these terms first time we are watching a movie?
P.S. I am actually laughing here at your misery.
One more lesson… Fight with the right armor/tool.
I enjoyed your thoughts. My two cents would be, first of all, try to enjoy these as that will help you make more sense of these. I went through my compulsory viewing regime when i used to visit my cousin when i started working few years back. I used to be there for the weekend and during dead of the winter, not much else to do other than watch TV. I had my fill of Disney movies as my cousin’s six year old loved Disney. As i could not avoid it :-), i started asking my niece about what was happening and she would explain the movie how she saw it. It was amazing as how the same thing meant different to different people. Whenever one is in a team, ask other people’s point of view. You may be pleasantly surprised.
This brings me to the other cent, though the Avengers are brought together by chance (for lack of a better word) the leadership position keeps on changing. Leadership has to do with understanding one’s potential (and also that of the team’s) but its more to understand of what someone cannot do. Its about the limitations and trying to find resources that fulfill those voids. And it has to do with whatever resources one has. Its trying to make a square peg fit into a round whole. In real life its never that one can find a perfect ‘Avengers’ team. So what do we mortals do if we do not have a Thor on our team and we do need divine intervention from time to time? just advice, let it go 🙂
Coming back to the six year old’s reruns… What i said earlier, Enjoy these moments, as tomorrow he wont be six years old…
Please elaborate the marits and demarits of watching Tom and Jerry in which (i believe) Jerry is basically ‘Tom’ :P… Giving the lesson the no matter how small or big you are; You need to have an evil mind 😀
That’s good analogy Ather. Sharing at LinkedIn if you don’t mind.
Certainly not! Thanks …