Don’t Judge a Fish by its ability to climb a Tree

The proverb’s traditional story is about highlighting the faults of our educational system. Here is a re-spin: A farmer had a lot of animals in his barn, the regular livestock’s, some animals picked from the wild, some from the rivers and he loved them all. Someone asked him one day “Which one is your most prized pet?”. He wasn’t sure, so he thought of some way to adjudge the coveted “most prized” contest. He loved climbing trees just for the fun of it, so he decided to let the animals compete in a tree climbing contest. The animals were lined up; Dog, Donkey, Rabbit, Pig, Tiger, Monkey, he also brought his fish for the contest. No prizes for guessing, it was what Monkey best at and it won by a handsome margin. Some other animals succeeded with great difficulty, while few others failed midway. Fish, however, couldn’t even get out of water, let alone climbing the massive tree. The farmer had found his winner & promoted the Monkey as his most prized pet, Fish got demoted to his least. Does the story ring a bell in your personal or professional life?

A teacher in school has to contend with varied characters in the class. Some kids have great attention span, some great memory, some follow instructions very well. Each kid is special, as the rhetoric goes. If the teacher judges the kids with just one yardstick, for sure not many will do the cut. Sports teacher will enjoy working with kids who are very sporty, a Library teacher will love the kids who can sit at one place and do silent reading. For sure, they need to judge the kids based on their respective areas, however they need to spare some thought for the “fish” that cannot climb the tree, no matter how hard it tries.

An anxious parent keeps comparing his/her kids with other kids. Look, your friend is so good in Maths, why not you? Oh, look at her dancing ballet so well, why can’t you? Some kids are very good at sports; some are curious in science, some love arts. If we judge our kid(s) just by their ability to do good in maths or excel in sports, it will be completely unfair. A friend once said, best is to introduce all the subjects to kids and let them pick their favorite. A fish would naturally pick swimming, and would be awesome at that. If a parent pushes this fish to climb trees, nothing worthwhile will happen.

A leader in business & professional space has lot of co-workers to interact with, everyone special in their own way. Some are great communicators, some technically sound, some hardworking, some great organizers. If the leader judges the co-workers using the same rules, it will only lead to favoritism & disgruntled employees. Respect the special trait, nurture the talent in the right direction. A good leader always identifies a fish with the swimming role & lets the fish swim in bold waters.

A self evaluator makes the mistake of judging oneself with others using wrong yardstick. Oh, he is flying high with his startup, why don’t I try that? He has risen up the corporate ladder in such short time., why am I stuck here? We all have different traits, capabilities and trajectories. The main purpose in life, if any, is to guide the self to be a Fish and swim in that deep blue water of one’s choice. A natural fit, completely at ease with the surroundings. Never judge self with a Monkey & end up in a self-pitiable position for not being able to climb a tree. You are born to swim, not climb trees. Go, Fish!