PUT A SHARK IN YOUR TANK & SEE HOW FAR YOU CAN REALLY GO...

While taking the cue from Dilip Mukerjea, & with the help of my faithful Copernic Agent Pro, I have managed to trace the following fascinating story about sustaining aliveness in our life on the net:

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the water close to Japan has not held many fish for decades.

So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever.

The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring the fish. If the return trip took more time, the fish were not fresh.

To solve this problem, fish companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer.

However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen fish. And they did not like the taste of frozen fish. The frozen fish also brought a lower price in the market.

So, fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, they were tired, dull, and lost their fresh-fish taste.

The fishing industry faced an impending crisis! But today, they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan .

How did they conquer the crisis?

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks, but with a small shark in each of them. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state.

The fish in the tank are constantly challenged, and hence, are always on the move in order to stay alive.

Transposing to the humankind: Have you realized that many of us are also living in a tank, but most of the time feeling bored, tired and spiritless?

So, we need a shark in our life to keep us mentally agile and kinesthetically mobile.

Basically in our mundane lives, sharks are the new challenges to keeping us in a lively state.

If you are steadily dealing with challenges, and tackling problems, you are on the ball. You think of your challenges and problems, and you get agitated & stay nimble. You are excited and eager to try out new solutions.

You have fun. More importantly, you are alive!

Don't create success, and revel in it in a state of "active inertia" (Thanks to Don Sull of the London Business School). You have the resources, skills and abilities to make a big difference.

Put a shark in your tank and see how far you can really go...

[By the way, do readers recall the classic advertising campaign of ESSO, now EXXON OIL, during the mid-sixties ~ 'Put a Tiger in Your Tank'?

The idea was that ESSO gasoline was so good & powerful than even your ramshackle car would roar like a tiger with "a tiger in your tank", so to speak!

Talking about challenges &/or problems to keep us staying alive, I am reminded of a great lesson from Dr Norman Vincent Peale, when I was a rookie sales engineer during the seventies: "If you want to find people without problems, we should go to a graveyard."

He said we could find plenty of people without challenges &/or problems, 6 ft down!]