The phrase "Turtles All The Way Down" was used during an encounter between the famous Nobel Prize winning scientist 'Bertrand Russell' and an un-educated old lady, the resultant anecdote is written as an introduction in the Global best seller of Stephen Hawking's 1988 book 'A Brief History of Time'
The story goes something like this...
The year Bertrand Russell won the Nobel Prize for science and Literature, 1937, he was giving a public lecture on astronomy, he was describing how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy, he was also describing how our universe came to life through a cosmic event which we now refer to and call the 'The Big Bang'
At the end of the lecture, the little old lady got up and said:
"Mr. Russell, what you have told us is a load of old rubbish; it is nothing like that at all, the world is a flat plate and it is supported on the back of a giant turtle, so there!"
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying," I thank you for that, but please, could you tell me, what is holding up the giant turtle?
"You think you're very clever young man, very clever indeed," said the old lady, "but now I know you don't know anything, you see, everyone knows the answer to that, it's TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN..."
The old lady then challenged Bertrand Russell to prove her wrong, she asked him firstly if he was around at the time of The Big Bang then she asked if he had been into outer space and seen for himself that the World was in fact round as he claimed?
When he replied with a quizzical 'NO' to both questions the old Lady told him that neither of them was actually right or wrong, she claimed instead that they both simply thought and believed different things…neither Bertrand Russell nor the room had a response and the phrase 'TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN' was heralded as a possibility from that day forth!
And that is why we chose our name, as a quirky reminder to all people, that they are free to 'think' and 'believe' ANYTHING they like…
In our business today, when we train salespeople and sales managers, the first thing we teach them all is the premise they are free to 'think' and 'believe' whatever they choose…as a result, they may as well think and believe they are going to be a spectacular success, and through the consistent application of trusted sales processes, they will not fail!
After all, when you believe the World is a flat plate, supported on the backs of an infinite tower of Giant Turtles, everything else seems rather easy to believe and quite straightforward doesn't it?