Cockroach Theory






Pichai Sundararajan, better known as Sundar Pichai, made headlines recently when he became the CEO of Google. He is being widely talked about, not just because he is the CEO of Google, but because he has a very humble Indian origin and has risen to success through persistent hard work.

Something that made me take a particular notice of him was when I happened to come across a speech by Pichai being circulated in social media, which I would like to share with you all. It is titled as the ‘Cockroach Theory’. I am sure, this quality of drawing absolutely amazing life-lessons from insignificant incidents and instances around him has helped him to be what he is today!

This is the story: At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky. The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but… it landed on another lady in the group. Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama.


The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behaviour of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

A few thoughts we can pick up while analyzing this situation could be: was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behaviour? If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed? He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos.

It is not the cockroach, but the inability of those people to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach, that disturbed the ladies. Upon introspection we’ll realize that it is not the shouting of your father or my boss or wife or husband that disturbs you, but your inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs you.

It’s not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs us, but our inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs us. More than the problem, it’s our reaction to the problem that creates chaos in our life.

Some of the lessons that we can learn by analyzing this incident could be: We should not react in life. We should always respond. The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded.

Reactions are always instinctive, often out of control, whereas responses are always well thought of. Thoughtless reactions can get us into unwanted trouble; whereas thought out practical and sensible responses can help us out of trouble.

Person who is HAPPY is not because Everything is RIGHT in Life. He/she is HAPPY because the Attitude towards Everything in Life is Right..!!


As the saying goes... "Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but how we react to what happens, not by what life brings us but the attitude we bring to life." -  Wade Boggs


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