Be a Big Fish in a Small Pond

You will not excel at everything you try in life. What the heck do you mean? I get straight A’s in college and I had a 4.0 GPA in high school! Don’t worry, it’s a good thing. If you were good at snorting coke, you wouldn’t still be here, would you? Society has become a complex, multi-headed beast, and finding your way through it means discovering your own talents and becoming successful relative to the activities you find important.

There will always be some better than me. I pined away earlier about not being a big success like the people I admire. Sometimes I forget that influencing the small world that is yours has just as much impact.

I never understood why someone would want to be a big fish in a small pond.

Why not be a regular fish in the big ocean? Doesn’t the convenience and variety offered in the ocean call to you?

I started out as a regular fish in the big ocean, with college. A small liberal arts school in Hanover, Indiana had accepted me back in 2001. I would be one smart kid among a multitude of highly intellectual kids. Oh, did the school make me happy. I spent my first glorious semester learning from professors with Ph.D.s, rubbing elbows with the children of international business men, and enjoying excellent cuisine in the dining halls. It was definitely an experience I will remember, but I didn’t stay.

Nearing the end of the semester I found out my request for a private education loan fell through. (In reality, my parents had bad credit and could not co-sign for one. Nor did they ever have the money to finance my education.) I went to the financial aid office and inquired about scholarships, grants, other education loan providers, the whole nine yards.

Speaking to the financial aid department head was when I realized I was nothing more than 1 student out of 1200, just another fish in the sea, and the only fish not fully funded. I was treated with great disdain. Why can’t you pay your tuition? Forget that my situation was fairly different from the other attending students.

Heartbroken and just plain broke, I halfheartedly applied to three public universities in Missouri. One of them had issues with paperwork. Tired of fighting their bureaucracy, I crossed them off my list instead. One of them sent an acceptance letter and tossed in a one-time scholarship. Then Northwest sent an acceptance letter and a healthy financial aid package. I transferred in January 2002 and was happy with the decision ever since.

It felt really weird to know I was considered a desirable candidate by this school, especially after the lukewarm responses I had received from the other two universities. Being a big fish in a small pond is a symbiotic relationship beneficial to both parties. I was a student with good grades that added to Northwest’s reputation as a quality school, and they were a helping hand when I needed to navigate financing my education.

Fast forward to finding a job as I neared graduation. I really wanted to work in a company where I could be a good influence. I had toured the advertising agencies down in Kansas City and they were amazing…off the wall designs for the cubicles, beautiful architecture in each building, access to big clients and state-of-the-art technologies to work with. I knew without a doubt it would be an incredible experience to work for any of them, and I knew I could get a job with at least one of them if I wanted it. I also knew without a doubt that it wasn’t for me.

Like the liberal arts school, I would be one of many talented people in the company.

It would be wonderful to be exposed to a variety of talents who are wildly good at what they do…but someone had taken the time to notice I had potential. Now it was my turn. I wanted to work for a company with unrealized success, where I could take my skills and make an impact. I was in luck.

Many Northwest students had overlooked a company called Angus Productions Inc. I was the sole applicant from the pool of Northwest students who could have applied.

When I first came to work for the web department, it was broken by its predecessors. Many of the web sites were old and using outdated technology, often doing a disservice to accessibility standards and its dial-up customers. Two people saw the potential the department had, many others did not. Those two had been working steadily for a year, fixing things. I have the honor of becoming the third.

Less than a year later, a few bad apples fell off the tree and were replaced with real talent. It has taken a lot of elbow grease and cutting through red tape to pull these web sites out of the dark ages. It will take a lot more effort before we can offer all the services we want in order to make our customers’ lives easier. But sit back and watch the show. Just wait. In five years, we will all be rock stars.

So how about it? Would you ever consider the small pond?