Free the Goldfish Coaching’s founder on how the idea for the company started:

During my first trip to Argentina, I took in one of those light-hearted, film festival type movies. I don’t remember the premise now, but I do remember one of the characters talking about how fishbowls are the worst place to keep a goldfish. It struck me as a rather strange comment, so when I researched it later, I was surprised to discover a few facts:

• Goldfish breathe easier if they have a larger surface area of water. That’s because the amount of oxygen they can get, and carbon dioxide that can be expelled, is correlated to the surface area of the water available – not the amount of water itself. By keeping them in a small fishbowl, you restrict the flow of oxygen and carbon dioxide!

• A goldfish also undergoes stress when it’s confined to a round fishbowl. The movements of the fish through the water cause vibrations that are reflected back onto the fish by the bent glass.

Months later, a friend was telling me how frustrated he felt with the way things were going in his life. He spoke of feeling trapped inside a fishbowl – and of feeling like he was swimming in circles, going crazy as endless chatter kept bouncing around in his head.

As he spoke, I kept seeing an image of a goldfish swimming frantically. He was suffocating and under stress because he was essentially living in a “fishbowl”!

That’s when something clicked. And Free the Goldfish Coaching was born.