3 Business Lessons I’ve Learned From Fly Fishing

By Greg Fullerton

Fly fishing is one of my favorite things to do because it gives me time to sit and think about life.

I used to fly fish a lot with my dad. Fly fishing had a calming effect on him.

He would get a tangle in his line and he’d sit there for twenty minutes, patiently helping it along, letting it work itself out.

I think there’s a metaphor in life for that.

A lot of times we’re so anxious to jerk on the knot, and all it does is weaken the line.

So if you’re patient, and let things unfold, and work on projects patiently, you have a much better chance of them working out favorably for you.

For example, when you’re overly anxious to close a sale and make a new customer, you’ll often push them away.

But when you patiently work with them, figure out their needs, and tug on them just where and how they need to be tugged, you’ll land them.

In fly fishing you don’t cast right at the fish. You cast above the fish and you man the line, and you let it float naturally through where the fish are, and you have to pay attention.

You don’t just hope they take it, you have to play a part in that.

Because they’ll bite at it a little, but you need to set it, you need to watch for the action then — boom! — you’ve got to yank that line at just the right moment.

And if you’re not paying attention, it happens fast. You’ve got to be ready. You’ve got to get a feel for it. It takes a while to get that feel.

Timing comes with experience, which means you need to fish a lot.

Business is no different — the more experienced you are, the more intuitive you’ll be to respond to people’s needs when the moment is right.

But if you prospect for a while then give up because you haven’t landed any prospects, you’ll never gain that experience.

You need to keep working the business long enough to learn when to yank the line and when to sit still.

More than timing, you also need something on your line that fish actually want to eat.

I mean, you could throw a booger out there, but who wants to eat a booger?

You’ve got to be casting something that people like. You’ve got to learn to craft and personalize your approaches to be relevant to each prospect on their terms.

For example, a particular prospect may not be jazzed by health and wellness products, but they thrive on the control of entrepreneurship.

That person would need a different “fly” on the line than the person who has had significant and painful health problems for years.

So keep casting. Stay patient with your tangles. Learn to listen and watch for the right signs, then pounce on them when the timing is right. And always make sure you’re casting with the right bait.