They each touched the beast in an effort to discover what it was.

The first blind man ran his hand over the elephant's trunk. "This animal is like a snake!" he declared.

The second man touched the elephant's side. "It's like a wall," he decided.

The third man felt the elephant's leg. "The creature is like a tree:' he stated.

The fourth blind man grasped the beast by its tail. "It is clear that this animal is like a rope:' he said.

The four blind men then began to argue about the nature of the animal before them. While they bickered, the elephant slowly began to destroy their homes. When the fellows heard the destruction, they knew they had to stop the creature.

So they each formed an organization to help them. One group developed strategies to stop a snake, one to take down a wall, one to uproot a tree, and one to fray a rope. Each group worked as hard as it could to recruit members and raise the resources necessary to accomplish its task. Some people joined more than one group. Sometimes the groups work together, and sometimes they worked against each other. Everyone was committed to his task, and they worked diligently for many years.

But they never succeeded, and the elephant eventually destroyed the entire community. The poor blind men never knew why they had lost.

Step back from the immediate problem to look at the whole picture because tactics designed to stop a snake, a wall, a tree, and a rope will never stop an elephant!