Would You Believe… Flying Monkeys?

One classic illustration of the Success’s Journey can be found in “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum, as young Dorothy tries to get back to her home in Kansas from the Land of Oz.

As she travels along the Yellow Brick Road with her companions, the Scarecrow, the Tinman and the Cowardly Lion, Dorothy is thrust into a series of cataclysms that test her character and threaten her life. These trials ultimately teach her the lesson—the story’s theme—There’s no place like home.”

After her darkest hour, Dorothy and her friends finally arrive at the Emerald City. With some difficulty and a bit of delay, they’re granted an audience with the great and powerful Wizard of Oz.
They each ask for his help, but they all are given the same task before they can get satisfaction: kill the Wicked Witch of the West.
All of them, in turn, believe this is impossible, and they despair over this impossible task. After all, the Wicked Witch has great power. Nonetheless, the four companions (plus Dorothy’s dog Toto, of course) set out to find the Wicked Witch.

As Dorothy and her friends enter the Witch’s realm, she discovers the travelers and sends a pack of forty savage wolves to destroy them. But the Witch hadn’t counted on the Tinman’s ax, and the wolves are the ones who meet with a bad end.
Next, the Witch sends forty crows to peck at them, but the Scarecrow dispatches them.

The Witch becomes even angrier and sends a swarm of bees to sting the travelers to death – enough bees to darken the sky. But the Tinman uses the Scarecrow’s straw to cover Dorothy, Toto, and the Lion.

The bees find only the Tinman to attack, which proves to be their undoing. Bees can’t live once they have lost their stingers.
Finally, in desperation, the Wicked Witch of the West summons a band of flying monkeys. They do her bidding to destroy the Scarecrow and Tinman, and they capture the Lion, as she commanded.
 


But the monkeys are unable to harm Dorothy or her little dog because she has the protection of Glinda, the Good Witch who welcomed her to Oz.
It seems that all is lost and Dorothy is doomed to live out her days as a slave in the Witch’s castle. However, one day the Witch provokes her and makes her so angry that Dorothy throws a bucket of water on the Witch.

Little did the girl know that this is the one thing that could kill the Wicked Witch of the West. She melts into a puddle like brown sugar, and the whole kingdom is liberated.
With a little help, Dorothy frees the Lion, has the Tinman restored, and re-stuffs the Scarecrow. After their happy reunion, the companions set out to confront the all-powerful Wizard of Oz and claim what he has promised them.


Dorothy and her companions traveled to the Emerald City to ask the great Wizard to grant their wishes. The Scarecrow is seeking a brain, the Tinman wants a heart, and the Lion wants courage. Dorothy’s only wish is to return home to Kansas.
For each request, the Wizard of Oz gave them the same task: kill the Wicked Witch of the West. This seemed not only impossible to the travelers, but to the Wizard himself.
We only learn this last tidbit when the heroes return to the Emerald City triumphant and the Wizard demurs. The companions bring news that the Wicked Witch is dead, melted when Dorothy threw a pale of water on her. Can you picture the “I’m melting!” scene? But the Wizard plays hard to get.
Now, check-out the plot twist the writer of the Oz story throws into his tale…

The companions expect to have an audience with the Wizard right away, though they are disappointed. Several days pass without word from him until finally they grow impatient and demand to see him at once. They threaten to enlist the aid of the Winged Monkeys against the Wizard if he won’t grant them an audience.

 

Ignore the Unseen Man 

Properly subdued, the Wizard agrees to see the travelers. Much to their surprise, they are led into the throne room of the Great and Powerful Oz only to find a common man hiding behind a screen.
Dorothy and the others find out that the Wizard of Oz is really just a humbug. The Wizard agrees. He even tells them, “I’m really a very good man, but I’m a very bad Wizard, I must admit.”
At this point in their adventure, the Wizard tells them the story of how he came from Omaha quite unexpectedly one day. He was working at a fair when he lost control of his hot air balloon. The wind carried him for a day and night over a vast desert, and then the balloon gently touched down in the Land of Oz.

The people of Oz assumed he was a Wizard since he came from the clouds. He let them think so because they feared and respected him, and it suited his purposes. They made him their ruler, so he ordered them to build him a palace along with the Emerald City.
The city is a beautiful place abundant in jewels, precious metals, and “every good thing that is needed to make one happy.” The Wizard’s only fear has been the Wicked Witches (poor misunderstood Elphaba) and the fear of getting found out as a humbug, not a Wizard.

Once he tells Dorothy and her friends his story, they’re moved with compassion. Then Oz grants the wishes of Dorothy’s traveling companions, drawing upon the contents of his cupboard. He bestows courage on the Cowardly Lion, gives a heart to the Tinman and brains to the Scarecrow.
Despite his best efforts, the Wizard despairs. “It will take more than imagination to carry Dorothy back to Kansas, and I’m sure I don’t 
know how it can be done.”

Just as Dorothy begins to despair that she won’t be able to return home, the Wizard comes up with a plan. He will make a new hot air balloon and pilot Dorothy back across the desert, leaving the wise Scarecrow to govern the Emerald City in his place.

The city is abuzz with activity as Dorothy and Oz prepare to make the journey home. On the point of departure, though, a sudden twist of fate means Dorothy must stay behind and the Wizard of Oz must travel across the desert alone.

What is the Wizard in your path to success that keeps you from achieving your life dream? Take a courage and unmask that wizard you will be amazed you will standing in front of treasure



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