Sharks in Life

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. However, the waters close to Japan have not held many fishes for decades. The fishermen, therefore, had to go further out to sea to catch their supply of fish and the fishing boat got bigger and bigger. Farther the fishermen went to procure fishes, longer it took them to bring the fishes in.  So by the time they reached the market, the fishes were no longer fresh.

To solve this problem, fishermen installed freezers on their boats. They would freeze the caught fishes in it. This helped in preserving the fishes for a longer period of time, but the freshness, as the Japanese desired, could not be retained. The price of frozen fishes started going down.

Then, the worried fishermen installed fish tanks. They would catch fish and keep them in the tanks, fin to fin. The fishes would thrash around a little but stopped moving afterwards. They were not dead, only tired and dull. Unfortunately, dull and sluggish fish did not taste fresh.

So how did the Japanese fishermen solve the problem? To keep the fishes fresh and lively throughout the journey, the fishermen added a small shark in their tanks. The shark would eat a few fish, but the remaining ones were in a lively state when they reached the market. The shark created a challenge for the fishes and kept them active throughout the journey.

Life gets dull when we live too easily, when we live without challenges. It is the challenges that help us grow and keep us lively. So we should consider the problems and challenges as motivators for moving forward in life. Without challenges, we become complacent, life becomes boring and purposeless.