The Whale and Krill

[Short Allegories – II]

A whale can eat up to 8,000 pounds of krill and plankton a day during its summer feeding frenzy. The goal of the whale is to gain weight for the long migration and breeding season ahead.

The whale, it seems, can never get enough.

The krill is a mere number. A blip in the overall tonnage. One in hundreds of millions of small crustaceans serving the seemingly insatiable appetite of the massive mammal.

It’s unlikely the whale notices an individual krill, let alone appreciates it's contribution to the krill community.

Seeking affirmation from consumers of tonnage is a futile enterprise. Some are lucky and make it. And unfortunately those are the stories we tell over and over again.

Attention that feeds mass appeal (or mass appetite) is not the same thing as attention that leads to influence.