I’ve always been fascinated by the Japanese carp otherwise known as the koi. It’s a fish with seemingly

unlimited growth potential. If you put the koi in a small fishbowl, it will grow to only be two or three inches long. In a larger tank or small pond, and it gets to be a foot and a half. But if the koi is placed in a large lake, where it can really stretch out, it can grow up to three feet long. The size of the fish is proportional to the size of its home.

Well, it works that way with people too. We grow according to the size of our world. Not physically, of course, but mentally. You too can be a mental giant!

Is it up to your supervisor to prepare you for a promotion? Maybe a little, but the real responsibility belongs much closer to home. You have to let your boss know that you’re always ready for a new challenge and will do whatever it takes to prepare. You want to be qualified before the next job opens up, not disappointed after. You want to be interesting at the office and after hours. You want to be interesting at the office and after hours. Your coworkers and friends can hear the same stores only so many times.

Grow. Stretch. Transform yourself.

A simple bar of iron is worth about $5. Made into horseshoes, the value rises to about $50. Transform it into needles, and now you’re talking about $500. But if you take that bar of iron and make it into springs for a Swiss watch, it could be worth a half-million bucks. You started with the same raw material; the value grew as the material was formed and developed.

It’s the same with people.