Over the weekend I watched Disney’s Chimpanzee with my 4 year old daughter.

The documentary follows a troop of chimps who are under the leadership of Freddy who is strong, resolute and ruthless in his style.

The story unfolds as a rival troop is looking to infiltrate Freddy’s territory and in the battle a young chimp called Oscar is orphaned.

As this little guy tries to come to terms with losing his mother he attempts to attach himself to others in the troop but gets rejection after rejection as all the other mothers have babies of their own to tend to.

The situation is hopeless. Oscar is unable to fend for himself and his condition starts to deteriorate leaving him facing a certain death.

In what would seem a final, desperate attempt to save himself Oscar approaches the one chimp in the troop that is seemingly unapproachable – Freddy.

Instead of pushing him away, Freddy takes Oscar under his wing. The two begin to bond and Freddy shares his knowledge with Oscar teaching him how to be a chimp.

Then something amazing happens. Something so unusual that the film crew is stunned.
Freddy carries Oscar on his back, something only a mother would normally do. He adopts Oscar as his own.

Oscar was saved and it was thanks to the most unlikely of sources.

What has all of this got to do with you?

In the pursuit of success and in the face of challenging times we can fool ourselves into thinking we have exhausted all options but help can always be found, it is just that sometimes it is in the most unlikely of places.

Having been rejected time and time again, Oscar could have given up…but he didn’t.

The natural order of the troop should have stopped him from approaching Freddy but it didn’t.

Have you ever held back from approaching someone because of their position or stature?

Sometimes we can be so in awe of others or intimidated by their position that we won’t make an approach.

What’s the worst that can happen? Another “NO”?

You wouldn’t be any worse off, would you?

But what if you got a “Yes”?
Just think what that could mean.