A Fish Story

I originally went to Alaska back in 1997 to help friends of mine, Jill Ramiel and Ken Alper, open up a bagel store -- The Silverbow Inn, in Juneau. One day, after helping build their bagel oven, I went fishing with the oven installation guy. He had a little skiff with an outboard motor and we were trolling for king salmon. This was my very first time salmon fishing and he helped be cut my herring bait at a bias so I could get that “sexy twirl” that drives the salmon crazy.

After fishing for about an hour, our outboard gave out. The oven guy, Randy, went to work on it while I just kept casting my line out and reeling it in slowly; trying to mimic the speed we were traveling at while trolling. Our skiff was drifting near the shore, which was fine by me, considering our motor wasn’t working. Meanwhile, Randy was getting frustrated that he couldn’t get the motor started. I guess he took it out on me a bit when he said, “Why the hell are you still fishing you idiot? The water is only about foot deep over here.”

I am a pretty stubborn guy and I threw my line in the water again; as I was reeling my line back in I got a huge strike. The line started screaming out of my reel and Randy started yelling instructions to me as I fought to land my very first salmon. Luckily, I hooked this fish pretty good, as I probably didn’t score many style points in landing this salmon. Randy netted it for me, and luckily, he got the motor started shortly thereafter so we could head back to the shop.

When we got back to the Silverbow Inn, we weighed in my prized king salmon at 38 pounds. Once the weigh in was completed, Chef Stefani Feller (now Marnon), who was helping open up the restaurant at the Silverbow, cleaned and marinated this fish. A group of friends then joined us on the rooftop picnic area that Jill and Ken had set up at their cool establishment and Chef Stefani grilled us the salmon. She handed me the first plate of fish. I declined, saying that I am not a big salmon fan. Well, I soon learned that when Chef Stefani hands you a plate of food, you don’t decline!

I then proceeded to savor one of the most delicious meals of my lifetime. There is just nothing better than grilled king salmon, especially if it was caught just a few hours prior. It was an amazing experience that I just had to share one more time (many of my friends have heard this story ad nauseum…sorry)!

Still, this is my small business blog and I need to relate this story to business. There are some subtle lessons that can be learned from this experience. First, be careful about listening to the naysayers. Maybe conventional wisdom was that not many salmon are caught that close to the shoreline. You obviously don’t see the big name fishing charters trolling for salmon in that part of Auke Bay. Yet you can go to the Silverbow Inn and look at the photo album they keep in the bagel shop and you will see a picture of me with my prized salmon.

Another lesson is to always accept a gift with proper respect. Luckily for me, Chef Stefani was kind enough to force me to eat what would be one of the best meals of my life. She could have easily been offended and dished out my portion to our other friends dining on the roof. Yet she just looked at me and sternly said, “You caught it and you are going to be the first to eat it.” In hindsight, I wish I would have accepted her offer with graciousness and with respect immediately after she handed me the plate. She used her amazing culinary talents and offered me a gift; to this day I am so embarrassed that I was that foolish to initially decline such generosity. My apologies to Chef Stefani and thanks again for giving me a second chance.

That second chance is another lesson to be learned. Sometimes we make mistakes the first time, but we are often given another opportunity to get it right. Luckily, I got back in her good graces by complimenting her culinary prowess enough that she even let me have a second helping when I asked.

The final lesson to be learned from Rick’s fish story is what was said to me as we were winding down the evening. I can’t remember which friend said this, but as we started talking about our next fishing day, someone chimed in with Lao Tzu’s maxim, “Give someone a fish and they are fed for a day, teach someone how to fish and you feed them for a lifetime.”

This is probably the best way to describe what business is all about. Some people think the secret to success in business is all about capital or access to funding. This is a huge misconception. There are plenty of businesses that have had access funding and they still fail. You can give someone all the money in the world; it may feed a business for a while, but it’s not invested in a sound business model, it will eventually be lost.

Business is about learning to be self sufficient. To be successful, it only takes the willingness to learn how to “fish.” There are various methods and some may work better than others. Yet it all boils down to learning how to most effectively use the skills you have to operate your business towards generating a profit. There needs to be some bait; something that has that “sexy twirl” to attract customers. Another important skill is learning how to budget your resources wisely, as some days the “fish” may not be biting.

Business requires a certain amount of skill, some trial and error, some patience and a little luck is always welcome. There are some good days and some bad days, just like fishing. I will conclude this fish story by paraphrasing a popular bumper sticker: “A bad day in business is still better than a good day at work.”