"If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward."

By Sam Yang - Get similar updates here

There is this story we all know, there are many variations, sometimes it's a goat rather than a donkey, sometimes a pit rather than a well. No matter the version, the moral remains the same: a parable on life, the "can do" spirit, and "never say die." An inspirational story for those who are down. But there's also another layer.

The Donkey in the Well

One day a farmer’s donkey fell into a well. The animal cried for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up. It wasn’t worth the effort to retrieve the donkey.

The farmer invited all of his neighbors to help him. The farmer and his neighbors grabbed shovels and threw dirt into the well. In realizing what was happening, the donkey cried. Then, to everyone’s amazement, the donkey quieted down.

A few loads of dirt later, the farmer looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit the donkey's back, the donkey would shake it off and take a step up.

This continued as the farmer’s neighbors shoveled more dirt. Pretty soon, everyone was in amazement as the donkey stepped out of the well and happily trotted off.

The tale of the donkey can motivate us as individuals, that our independent decisions can overcome things that are seemingly beyond our control. Each problem, a stepping stone for success, until we are done. Until we are out. Until we win. Yet this is a narrow view of the world. In fact, it is adversarial: us vs. the world. The world, something to defeat, which conspires to keep us away from fulfilling our ambitions. But what makes humans so incredible is that, we are the most collaborative of species.

"The Donkey in the Well" is not merely a motto on living; it is also an allegory for progress. And since history is ongoing, there is no done. The well of history is an endless one.

The Donkey in the Endless Well

[My altered version]

One day a donkey fell into a well. The animal circled around the pit for hours, trying to figure out what to do. Then dirt began pouring into the well. In realizing what was happening, the donkey cried out, but no one was there. There was only dirt.

The donkey quieted down. From the dirt's perspective, it wasn't being buried; it was a rising tide, raising everything with it.

With every plop of dirt that hit the donkey's back, the donkey would shake it off and take a step up. As more dirt arrived, the donkey would shake and take another step.

The well began to change the higher the donkey rose, shifting from stone, to wood, to steel. Yet no matter how high the donkey got, the distance from the top remained the same. Eventually, the donkey died, but the dirt remained.

One day a donkey fell into a well. In it was his past, present, and future.

The Great Man Theory vs. Progress

The ground is the foundation for progress; the well is our history and our future. Every step we take builds on the previous. The past lays the groundwork. No single piece pulls us forward; it's all of history that moves us forward. History is not only a cycle; it is also a spiral that builds upon itself. Progress builds on the work of everything that came before it.

There is no "one" donkey; there is only progress, and progress is collective.

We get buried if we ignore what is already available to move ahead. Work with what you have to create something new. This is not only practical but also a matter of survival.

Progress doesn't care about best case scenarios or our wishes; it doesn't need belief, it just happens. Constantly. Things change, and we can't rely on systems that assume it doesn't. Whether the donkey lives or dies, it's still a part of progress.

If we stop keeping pace, if progress gets ahead of us — as it's done so many other times in our history — we'll get buried, and a new empire will rise. Just as more capable people can take our jobs. Our ideas will be usurped by better ideas, if we stop paying attention. We can lose our partners to more attentive partners. Trouble can brew and explode when we are ill-prepared.

And sometimes, regardless of what we do, a more advanced competitor will appear to stop our progress and take our resources. We will be what they read about in their history texts, a people entombed in antiquity. A cautionary tale of what happens when you think you have risen so high that you can step out of the well and end the story.

Stories will end. History never ends. (And it shouldn't, for, if it did, that would mean the end of all existence.)

Yet the donkey as a great hero speaks to us because we like to see ourselves as special and distinct. There are those like Thomas Carlyle and Friedrich Nietzsche, who believed history could be explained by the impact of "great men." Greatness in their context is anyone who single-handedly changes history. From Lincoln to Hitler. Greatness does not mean goodness, nor does being special or distinct.

Carlyle writes: