Imagine yourself on a ship. When you first join the crew, from the very first day, you noticed a few clouds ahead, but you didn't think much of it. Fast forward 6 months. You're standing on the brig, and you notice the first mate grab the captain while she is vigorously steering clear of inclement weather. She gets tossed into the water, out of nowhere. You stand there in shock. You can't believe that she was betrayed by her own assistant. She was too distracted from steering clear of the storms, that she never noticed her own first mate sneaking up behind her.
Another assistant captain takes the wheel. You can tell that they've never captained a ship before, and they seem to be heading right for the terrible weather. One of your crew mates warns the newly appointed captain about the bad weather. Again, the first mate comes along and tosses him in the water. Water starts to pour into the ship. Again, the crew points it out to the newly appointed captain.
The new captain calls the ship's owner. The ship's owner comes out and begins to chastise the crew. The crew looks around at each other, their eyes say, "WTF, the problem is obviously the captain. But they are all silent and afraid to speak out. As the ship begins to sink, the pattern repeats itself. Every time a crewmate points out that there is water coming into the boat, they are thrown into the ocean." As they become more and more afraid to speak out, most of them become less and less motivated. Finally, they reach their first destination.
After reaching the destination and unloading the spoils, they notice the ship's owner, the captain, and the first mate rewarding themselves extravagantly, while the crew chews on lemon peels in the basement. They become even less motivated once they realize that the game is rigged against them. The captain and the ownership of the ship blame them for all of the failures, while rewarding themselves with the treasure. Finally, the most motivated crewmates can't take it anymore. Whenever they see a lifeboat, the immediately jump on. It becomes impossible to retain any of the motivated, hardworking crewmates.
