Shooting Fish in a Barrel

The Hotpot | January 2026 | By Lisanne

11.01

It’s easy to shoot fish in a barrel.
That part was never the point.

The hard part is convincing the fish to gather.
Earning enough trust, curiosity, or tension that they stay.

It can take years to build the barrel. To decide who it’s for. To make it worth stepping into.

Once attention is gathered, the shot looks effortless.
But attention is, very rarely, an accident.

The real work isn’t the moment of execution.
It’s the slow, unglamorous work of showing up, shaping context, and staying long enough that others choose to follow.

Anyone can take the shot. Fewer people do the work that makes the shot possible.

So the question isn’t whether something looks easy.
It’s what had to exist first for it to be easy at all.

Thank you for reading! The journal prompt of today:

What barrels are you building in silence?

Let me know in the comments.

Curious to see more reflections like this? Click through to see the rest of the series on entrepreneurship. I’d love to hear what resonates with you.