There I was one day when my pet fish, Lumen was happy and frolicking in his fish bowl. Lumen was like a mini Labrador retriever in the sense that every time I came home, he would swish his tail, obviously happy to see me, swim around in circles, and acknowledge the deep-sea diver guy in the bowl, too! I think that my pet fish must have had a short-term memory problem since he would always stop and greet the deep-sea diver guy and then move on. Lumen was a happy camper in his fish bowl and I loved watching him, and so, I started thinking about what I could do to help people at work enjoy themselves more, have trust and faith in each other, and be happy shiny fish, just like Lumen.

One day, I returned home to find my poor little pet fish, Lumen, dead on the carpet…(moment of silence please). After months of grieving and therapy, I realized that my poor little buddy didn’t take his own life without leaving a note …but rather, he had a keen awareness that his life could be far bigger if he just thought outside the limits of his glass bowl. The message to me was “there are greater ponds out there and I’m gonna take a risk and do something completely different!” So…off he went, leaping out of his limitations to find a greater purpose. Now, I’m not sure if Lumen was going for the toilet or the sink but I think that where my little buddy’s mission failed was by taking the leap without the support of his teammates: the deep-sea diver guy and myself.

Now, I wonder how this story would have been different if Lumen only knew how to ask for support…