Lessons from a Goldfish: Owning Up to Mistakes

Growing up, one of my favorite places we lived was a trailer park in Colorado Springs. One of the highlights of the neighborhood was having a next-door neighbor with a fish tank. As a 4-year-old I was mesmerized at the little goldfish scurrying up to the surface to eat their food.

In the 1970’s it wasn't unusual for kids to play outside unsupervised. As fate would have it, on one of those unsupervised days, I decided to visit my neighbors with the fish. After a few knocks, to my disappointment the neighbors were not home. Since most of us did not lock our doors back then, I let myself in to check on my little gold friends.

The fish weren’t very active, so I figured they were just hungry. Thank goodness the fish food container was close by. I excitedly unscrewed the cap and began pouring.

To my surprise the entire contents of the fish food container went into the aquarium. Confused fish went scrambling to escape from their watery grave.

After pulling each little fish out of the tank and cleaning them off, I was off to my next adventure.

When the neighbors arrived home later that day, they were greeted to an aquarium in desperate need of cleaning and little goldfish drying out all around the living room.

Even though I denied any involvement in the crime, there was no denying my guilt when it was discovered that one of the deceased fish had somehow ended up in the front pocket of my pants. Ugh!

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All of us make mistakes. However, when those mistakes affect others like team members, clients, family members, and especially neighbors with fish, it’s important to be up front, get ahead of it, and most importantly take responsibility. That’s what our core value of Accountability at Fulling Management & Accounting is all about.

Without accountability, you too could end up smelling like a dead fish!