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ChangingMinds Blog! > Blog Archive > 14-Apr-06

Friday 24-Apr-06

Fishes and ponds

My children are at the start of their adult life and will soon be making big decisions about fishes and ponds. The choice broadly falls into two categories: you can be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond. Of course life is more complex than this, but the decision still stands: what kind of fish do you want to be, and what kind of pond do you want to swim in.

In a small pond, it is relatively easy to become the big fish, especially if you dig out the pond yourself. Small business owners are kings and queens in their own domains. They are in control of their own fate and regularly have their sense of identity stroked by their subordinates. All in all, when business is good, being a big fish in a small pond can make you feel pretty good. However, when things get bad, the pond can evaporate, along with your hard-won living - a thought that many people find difficult to bear.

Meanwhile, the small fish in the big pond has many larger fishes around them, guiding and controlling them. But by and large, life is not too bad and the security of the big pond keeps them happy. More than this, they have the opportunity to grow and explore. Big ponds have more nooks, crannies and opportunities than small ponds by which the small fish can get bigger. With less effort than the big fish in the small pond, the 'small' fish in the big pond can can become larger than the 'big' fish, even though it may not seem so as they contrast themselves with the even bigger fish around them.

So perhaps the question is less about how big a fish you want to be, but more about the pond in which you want to swim. Size is illusionary and based largely on the fish around you. If you need to feel big, then go for the small pond and try not to look at others outside your particular puddle. If, however, you want to be big, then go find yourself a nice big pond in which you can explore, learn from the bigger fish and grow.

Your comments

Maybe so!!
But actually, the big fish in his small pond, could very well just be another small fish in the bigger pond in which we all live. So, at the same time that he may be a big fish, he is also a small fish, just not so small, or so big.
But it\'s the same thing as the comparison between people who want to change the world and those of us who concentrate on our own castle. At the same time, the world is our castle, even if our castle is our world.
Big fish, medium fish, small fish, we're all just as big or as small as we feel we are. I'm nothing, yet, I am the king. And that's fine with me.

-- Jimbo
 

Dave replies:
Sounds fishy. But I guess you're right. In the end, we're all fish.

I like to be a small fish in a big pond because depending on different personality and the attitude towards the life, people are different to choose their lives. If you want to enrich your experience, learn more from the co-workers, open up your mind, the big pond can help you.

-- Lana

it is so true it is good to be a small fish in big pond because you have lot of space meaning that one will be full of experience

-- fisayo