Are you dealing with a big enough problem in your life right now? Does this question sound absurd, that too in this season of global economic slowdown? Still, it’s worth answering and I hope your answer is a YES. If you either think you don’t have any problems, or think you have big problems then there’s one thing you could do…TAKE UP A WORTHY ENOUGH PROBLEM THAT IS REALLY MUCH LARGER THAN YOU AND SOLVE IT. I am willing to bet, your existing problems will become insignificant and you will become significant.

My colleague Sundeep Dasa shared a case study with me today of how Japanese Fishermen dealt with their Problem. In the context of this topic I find it quite appropriate:

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have 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 in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste.
To solve this problem, fishing 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 and they did not like frozen fish.
The frozen fish brought a lower price. 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, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish.

So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan?
To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are challenged.

If you have realized that you are living in a pond, playing it safe or being secure, or most of the time tired & dull, lacking interest in things/life, then you need a Shark in your life to keep yourself awake and moving!! Basically in our lives Sharks are new challenges to keep us active, going and growing…

Way back in 1994, it was a bright sunny evening. I was seated with a carrot juice in a street side stall in Kula Lumpur with my coach Rajesh Setty. Rajesh was talking about the characteristics of money and it was a wonderful discussion we had. He shared about Robert Anthony’s writing about money in his book in which Robert Anthony says, Money is like a river, it’s in abundance and it flows. It’s up to us to go to the river and drink as much. Some people not only drink but also fill a cup and take it along with them. Someone else may bring a jar, fill it and carry it along with them apart from just drinking there. Someone else might bring a barrel…

I got a chance to share this same thought with my then chairman Mr.S.A.Chandran, in 1999 and my thought had expanded then and I extended from the barrel to a truck. Mr.Chandran liked the thought and said “how about building a canal to divert the river to our office”. He smiled and I smiled listening to his powerful thought process.

This week, I was part of Landmark Education seminar. I heard the same message from the leader there. He said, “money is in abundance but we think it’s a highly constraint one, hard to get it and hence making it difficult to get it”.

I agree and align with what I have learnt about money in the last 15 years ‘MONEY is in ABUNDANCE’.

Today, it’s the summer season (recession time). The water (money) might have dried up in many parts of the world. But let me remind you, summer is when abundance water gets generated as the summer heat melts the great Himalayas and many other regions covered by ice which is the source for water that generates large volumes of fresh water. What’s important is to be there, where the fresh water flows and tap into it…

Money! Money! – It’s summer season, begin your journey to tap into the ice that just melted…